Scientific Highlights
High-resolution method for computed nano-tomography developed
A novel nano-tomography method developed by a team of researchers from the Technische Universität München (TUM), the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the ETH Zurich opens the door to computed tomography examinations of minute structures at nanometer resolutions. The new method makes possible, for example, three-dimensional internal imaging of fragile bone structures. The first nano-CT images generated with this procedure was published in the renowned journal Nature on September 23, 2010.
Understanding plastic semiconductors better
New method allows important insights into polymer semiconductors
Semiconductors made from polymer materials are becoming increasingly important for the electronics industry – as a basis for transistors, solar cells or LEDs – showing important advantages when compared to conventional materials: they are lightweight, flexible and very cheap to produce.
New X-ray technique distinguishes between that which previously looked the same
A new method forms the basis for the widespread use of an X-ray technique which distinguishing types of tissue that normally appear the same in conventional X-ray images
Observation of a d-wave nodal liquid in highly underdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ
A key question in condensed-matter physics is to understand how high-temperature superconductivity emerges on adding mobile charged carriers to an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator. We address this question using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to probe the electronic excitations of the non-superconducting state that exists between the Mott insulator and the d-wave superconductor in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ.
Watching atoms move: an ultrafast phase transition
One approach to advance our understanding of the complex interactions between different degrees of freedom in strongly correlated systems is to use time-resolved methods to study the response of a material after it has been driven out of equilibrium. Ultrafast optical techniques have demonstrated considerable potential to unravel the correlations that drive the interesting physics in such materials.
Confinement-Induced Orientational Alignment of Quasi-2D Fluids
Extreme confinement is known to induce ordering of the fluid, thereby affecting its properties.
Advanced phase contrast imaging using a grating interferometer
Conventional absorption based X-ray microtomography can become limited for objects showing only very weak attenuation contrast at high energies. However, a wide range of samples studied in biology and materials science can produce significant phase shifts of the X-ray beam and thus phase contrast X-ray imaging can provide substantially increased contrast sensitivity.
Electrons with opposite spins move in opposite directions
In one dimension, there are only two ways to move: left or right. This leads to some peculiar properties for one-dimensional systems on the atomic scale.
Putting the squeeze on phonons
Photon squeezing has been the subject of intense interest in the field of quantum optics, since it serves as a unique demonstration of the quantum nature of light. On a practical level, squeezing offers opportunities to make interferometric measurements much more precise than would normally be allowed by quantum uncertainty limits. In principle, the physics of squeezing may be applied to many different types of bosons.