Scientific Highlights

Many complex metals exhibit collective states in which electrons appear to collaborate to generate novel and frequently functional behavior. These states develop when metals are cooled down to remove the effects of thermal fluctuations, enabling collective states in which electrons move coherently through the material. These collective electronic states are of tremendous importance because they are the foundation for many quantum states of interest such as unconventional superconductivity, frustrated magnetism, hidden order, as well as topologically non-trivial and electronic-nematic states.

Kagome materials often host exotic quantum phases, including spin liquids, Chern gap, charge density wave, and superconductivity. Existing scanning microscopy studies of the kagome charge order have been limited to nonkagome surface layers. Here, we tunnel into the kagome lattice of FeGe to uncover features of the charge order. Our spectroscopic imaging identifies a 2 × 2 charge order in the magnetic kagome lattice, resembling that discovered in kagome superconductors. Spin mapping across steps of unit cell height demonstrates the existence of spin-polarized electrons with an antiferromagnetic stacking order.

The first magnet series consisting of 112 quadrupole electromagnets for SLS2.0 were measured to high precision using a special home-made rotating coils measurement system. This is an important step forward for the realization of SLS2.0, the upgrade of the Swiss Light Source (SLS) at PSI, and a milestone for the members of the Magnet Section in GFA.

Dr. Francesca Borgna, former Marie Curie Fellow at the Center for Radiopharmaceutical Sciences awarded by the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2022 and gave the IPW Young Scientist lecture entitled: "Combination of Terbium-161 with Somatostatin Receptor Antagonists: a Potential Paradigm Shift for the Treatment of Neuroendocrine Neoplasm.

The development of next generation fuel cell membranes based on aromatic hydrocarbon chemistry calls for a new antioxidant strategy to tackle radical induced membrane degradation. Although damage by radicals cannot be prevented, the formed aromatic intermediates can be repaired by a suitable additive. Fuel cell experiments demonstrate that the approach is viable on the device level and that repair is a catalytic mechanism.

We are happy to announce that Alex has been awarded the 2022 Nicholas Kurti Science prize. The prize recognises his work on non-linear effects in Josephson junctions for quantum information processing.

The kagome metals of the family AV₃Sb₅, featuring a unique structural motif, harbor an array of intriguing phenomena such as chiral charge order and superconductivity. CsV₃Sb₅ is of particular interest because it displays a double superconducting dome in the region of the temperature-pressure phase diagram where charge order is still present. However, the microscopic origin of such an unusual behavior remains an unsolved issue. Here, to address it, we combine high-pressure, low-temperature muon spin relaxation/rotation with first-principles calculations. We observe ....

We studied the magnetic excitations in the quasi-one-dimensional (q-1D) ladder subsystem of Sr_14−xCa_xCu₂₄O₄₁ (SCCO) using Cu L₃-edge resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS). By comparing momentum-resolved RIXS spectra with high (x = 12.2) and without (x = 0) Ca content, we track the evolution of the magnetic excitations from collective two-triplon (2 T) excitations (x = 0) to weakly- dispersive gapped modes at an energy of 280 meV (x = 12.2)...