Scientific Highlights
The importance of knowing your stripes
A collaboration between three NUM laboratories has found that magnetic ‘stripe order’ in high-temperature superconductors not only co-exists with superconducting order, but might very well be intimately connected with it.
Signatures of the topological s+- superconducting order parameter in the type-II Weyl semimetal Td-MoTe2
In its orthorhombic Td polymorph, MoTe2 is a type-II Weyl semimetal, where the Weyl fermions emerge at the boundary between electron and hole pockets. Non-saturating magnetoresistance and superconductivity were also observed in Td-MoTe2. Understanding the superconductivity in Td-MoTe2, which was proposed to be topologically non-trivial, is of eminent interest.
First light in SwissFEL Experimental Station Bernina
Friday, October 20th, 2017, we brought the first light (wavelength 1.2 nm) into the experimental hutch of Bernina. The beam passed the Alvra endstation, went through the diagnostic devices and hit the diagnostic screen in front of the refocussing KB-system of Bernina. The upper picture shows the pink beam on the last diagnostic screen of the beamline. The lower left at the entrance of Bernina-hutch, 133 m downstream of the undulator. The lower right picture shows the beam centered in the alignment iris in front of the KB-system.
First light in SwissFEL Experimental Station Bernina
Friday, October 20th, 2017, we brought the first light (wavelength 1.2 nm) into the experimental hutch of Bernina.
The beam passed the Alvra endstation, went through the diagnostic devices and hit the diagnostic screen in front of the refocussing KB-system of Bernina.
The upper picture shows the pink beam on the last diagnostic screen of the beamline.
The lower left at the entrance of Bernina-hutch, 133 m downstream of the undulator.
MultiFLEXX - The new multi-analyzer at the cold triple-axis spectrometer FLEXX
The first experimental characterization of a multiple energy analysis wide angle backend for a cold triple-axis spectrometer is reported. The multi-analyzer module MultiFLEXX employs 155 detection channels which simultaneously probe an extensive range in wavevector and energy transfer. Successful mapping of magnetic excitations in MnF2 and Ho demonstrate order of magnitude gains in data collection efficiency using this novel type backend.
Making the world go round - a look into the structure of a prominent heterogeneous catalyst
Fluid catalytic cracking catalysts, which are composite particles of hierarchical porosity, were examined using ptychographic X-ray tomography. These particles are essential to the conversion of crude oil into gasoline. Examination of catalysts at decreasing levels of catalytic conversion efficacy allowed the detection of possible deactivation causes.
Time- and spatially-resolved magnetization dynamics driven by spin-orbit torques
Current-induced spin-orbit torques hold a great potential for manipulation of magnetization at ultrafast timescales. Researchers at ETH Zürich have demonstrated, using time-resolved STXM imaging at the Swiss Light Source, the influence of spin-orbit torques on the switching behaviour of Pt/Co/AlOx nanostructured elements.
Frustratingly disordered
A study of how disorder affects a ‘frustrated’ magnet reveals a surprising robustness of the underlying quantum many-body state, and provides evidence for emerging quantum phenomena induced by disorder.
Coulomb spin liquid in anion-disordered pyrochlore Tb2Hf2O7
The charge ordered structure of ions and vacancies characterizing rare-earth pyrochlore oxides serves as a model for the study of geometrically frustrated magnetism. The organization of magnetic ions into networks of corner-sharing tetrahedra gives rise to highly correlated magnetic phases with strong fluctuations, including spin liquids and spin ices. It is an open question how these ground states governed by local rules are affected by disorder.
Highly Crystalline C8-BTBT Thin-Film Transistors by Lateral Homo-Epitaxial Growth on Printed Templates
Highly crystalline thin films of organic semiconductors offer great potential for high-performance, low-cost flexible electronics. Researchers at IMEC Belgium have developed a new double-step thin film fabrication process that offers higher performance devices. Soft X-ray spectro-microscopy at the Swiss Light Source was used to prove that the increased performance comes from larger areas of material sharing the same molecular orientation.