Scientific Highlights
Carlos Vaz Honored by the American Physical Society as Outstanding Referee 2017
SIM beamline scientist Carlos Vaz was recognized as outstanding referee for providing high quality peer review for the journals of the American Physical Society (APS).
In-situ Studies of the Reactivity of Model Catalysts: Surface Chemistry from flat surfaces to nanoparticles
On 7th February Dr. Christian Papp from University Erlangen (Germany) is visiting the SIM beamline and will give a Photon Science Seminar talk with the title: "In-situ Studies of the Reactivity of Model Catalysts: Surface Chemistry from flat surfaces to nanoparticles"
Annual Retreat of the Microscopy & Magnetism Group
The Magnetism and Microscopy group has met for its annual retreat meeting in Lungern 11- 15.1.2017 (in the central mountain region of Switzerland) for extensive discussions on its science program. As for other years, after some general introductory lecture into the techniques used, current and future projects have been presented by the PhD students, postdocs, and scientists as well as from guests who collaborate with the group. Discussion went into the time where dinner has been prepared together, followed by some leisure activities on Saturday.
De nouvelles approches des réactions chimiques grâce aux nanotechnologies
80 % des produits de l’industrie chimique sont fabriqués par recours à la catalyse. Ce procédé est également indispensable dans la conversion énergétique et l’épuration des gaz d’échappement. L’industrie teste donc continuellement de nouvelles substances et de nouvelles configurations susceptibles de déboucher sur de nouveaux procédés catalytiques plus performants. Des chercheurs de l’Institut Paul Scherrer PSI à Villigen et de l’ETH Zurich ont à présent développé une méthode qui permet d’améliorer nettement la précision de tels essais, ce qui devrait accélérer la recherche de solutions optimales.
The Smallest Magnet
Single holmium atoms adsorbed on few monolayers of magnesium oxide are extraordinarily stable magnets. They retain a significant fraction of their magnetization when the external magnetic field is switched off. This has been shown recently in a study combining x-ray magnetic circular dichroism performed at the Swiss Light Source (SLS) and at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) as well as scanning tunneling microscopy. The results open perspectives of storing and processing information at ultrahigh density.
Magnesium Oxide Boosts the Hysteresis of Single-Molecule Magnets
Researchers from PSI and EPFL have demonstrated that the magnetization hysteresis and remanence of TbPc2 single-molecule magnets drastically depends on the substrate on which they are deposited. If a few atomic layers thick magnesium oxide film grown on a silver substrate is used, a record wide hysteresis and record large remanence can be obtained. Single-molecule magnets are attractive for molecular spintronics applications such as information processing or storage.
Magnetoelectroelastic control of magnetism
X-ray magnetic circular dichroism at the Co L3,2 edges measured at the X-Treme beamline, SLS and at the Advanced Light Source, evidence that three distinct electric field driven remanent magnetization states can be set in the Co film at room temperature. Ab initio density functional theory calculations unravel the relative contributions of both strain and charge to the observed magnetic anisotropy changes illustrating magnetoelectroelastic coupling at artificial multiferroic interfaces.
Itinerant and Localized Magnetization Dynamics in Antiferromagnetic Holmium
Resonant magnetic scattering performed at the x-ray free electron laser facility LCLS (USA) has been used to investigate the magnetization dynamics of elemental Holmium. It is found that the demagnetization of conduction electrons and localized 4f magnetic moments have the same temporal evolution showing a strong coupling between the different magnetic moments.
Tunable spin polarization and superconductivity in engineered oxide interfaces
A new kind of 2DEG is found by inserting two atomic layers of the antiferromagnetic and insulating compound EuTiO3 between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3. The 2DEG is found to exhibit besides a superconducting ground state, a strong spin-polarization. The magnetism of Eu and Ti was studied by XMCD at the X-Treme beamline in SLS.