Swiss Light Source - SLS

The Swiss Light Source (SLS) at the Paul Scherrer Institut is a third-generation synchrotron light source. With an energy of 2.4 GeV, it provides photon beams of high brightness for research in materials science, biology and chemistry.
SLS is part of the Photon Science Division. The facility has world-leading instruments at its beamlines for unraveling the structure of proteins, for in-depth 3D imaging of matter, and for investigating how the electrons of atoms and molecules keep matter together and render it properties such as magnetism and electron conduction at zero resistance (‘superconductivity’).

The beamlines for protein structure determination are intensively used by pharmaceutical companies in Switzerland and abroad. SLS is also leading in the development of pixelated X-ray detectors. The company DECTRIS has been spun off from these activities.
In something as complex as a human being structures and processes occur on all length scales from macroscopic down to atomic dimensions. The SLS host a variety of techniques to address problems on different length scales.
Materials with new, functional properties are the scope of intense research, since they offer fascinating insights into fundamental interactions and hold promise for advanced technologies which is highly needed. The SLS host world-leading capability in advanced materials spectroscopy ranging from photoemission spectroscopy, over spectromicroscopy to different X-ray absorption, scattering and diffraction techniques.
A further focus is to provide advanced micro- and nanofabrication technologies to academic and industrial users, in particular in the area of polymer nanotechnology.

Current operation status

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Increased benefits for industry through the use of the Swiss Light Source

The scope for industrial research and development at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) is greater than ever before. Clients from all over the world are able to probe their systems with greater resolution and more closely matching realistic operation conditions than can be achieved at their home laboratories. For industry use, the SLS offers a variety of instruments and a team of scientists covering a wide range of expertise including macromolecular and small molecule crystallography, X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering and imaging. Proprietary access to the Swiss Light Source, SwissFEL and PSI Clean Rooms is managed through the SLS Techno Trans AG. Read more

CALIPSOplus, a European Horizon2020 funded research and innovation program, provides access support for SMEs to light sources. The access is based on a specific review system for SMEs in parallel to the established academic access route but following the same principles. The proposal confidentiality is kept during the whole process. If the proposal is accepted, the SME will have access to the requested light sources and the experiments will be financially supported through CALIPSOplus: Read more

Latest Research Highlights

27 August 2019

Evolution of Magnetic Order from the Localized to the Itinerant Limit

Quantum materials that feature magnetic long-range order often reveal complex phase diagrams when localized electrons become mobile. In many materials magnetism is rapidly suppressed as electronic charges dissolve into the conduction band. In materials where magnetism persists, it is unclear how the magnetic properties are affected.

29 July 2019

Operando X-ray Characterization of High Surface Area Iridium Oxides to Decouple their Activity Losses for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction

The increasingly popular power-to-gas technology for the utilization of hydrogen as a clean energy vector involves the use of electrolyzers to convert water into H₂ and O₂. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the least efficient among these processes, and a catalyst is required to speed up its kinetics at the high potentials (customarily ≥ 1.4 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode) at which the reaction takes place.

12 July 2019

Spin fluctuation induced Weyl semimetal state in the paramagnetic phase of EuCd2As2

Weyl fermions as emergent quasiparticles can arise in Weyl semimetals (WSMs) in which the energy bands are nondegenerate, resulting from inversion or time-reversal symmetry breaking. Nevertheless, experimental evidence for magnetically induced WSMs is scarce. Here, using photoemission spectroscopy, we observe that the degeneracy of Bloch bands is already lifted in the paramagnetic phase of EuCd₂As₂. We attribute this effect to the itinerant electrons experiencing quasi-static and quasi–long-range ferromagnetic fluctuations.