Nanoburgers with promising flaws

DESY team finds surprising defects in tiny metal particles, which could stimulate the development of more efficient catalysts

27-Jun-2025 - Catalysts are indispensable in many industries: they speed up chemical reactions, making them economically viable. They often consist of tiny particles, just a few nanometres across, to which molecules attach themselves, making it easier for them to form a bond with another reagent. The catalysts ...

Scientists achieve breakthrough in laser-alignment for macromolecular single-particle imaging

Visualization of molecular structures with unprecedented detail

15-Apr-2025 - Single-particle diffractive imaging (SPI) using X-ray free-electron lasers allows researchers to reconstruct the structure of nanoparticles and biomolecules. However, the technique often requires imaging up to several billion nanoparticles to produce the image and imposes limitations on its ...

X-ray snapshot: How light bends an active substance

An imaging technique established for decades applied to complex molecules for the first time

12-Mar-2025 - With the help of the world's most powerful X-ray laser, European XFEL, a research team led by Goethe University Frankfurt and the research centre DESY has achieved an important breakthrough: Using the example of the pharmaceutically active substance 2-thiouracil, they applied a long-established ...

Quantum correlation revealed by attosecond delay

Groundbreaking applications such as efficient solar energy harvesting, ultrafine sensor technology, and enhanced photocatalysis possible

17-Feb-2025 - Attosecond time-resolved experiments reveal the increasing importance of electronic correlations in the collective plasmon response as the size of the system decreases to sub-nm scales. The study, published in the journal “Science Advances”, was led by the University of Hamburg and DESY as part ...

ChatGPT, run my particle accelerator!

A first step towards a future in which complex scientific systems can be optimised simply by voice input

13-Feb-2025 - Do you sometimes find yourself thinking, ‘I wonder what ChatGPT has to say about this’? It has become common practice to consult artificial intelligence (AI) on a wide range of topics and problems. Scientists at DESY and the University of Hamburg have now asked this question with regard to ...

PETRA III provides new method for determining the melting temperature at high pressure

07-Feb-2025 - An international research team from DESY, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Edinburgh and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has developed a novel method to accurately determine the melting temperature of opaque materials using X-ray phase-contrast imaging and X-ray ...

New insights into bonding nature of antimony – implications for materials research

The findings could be used to optimise material properties

24-Jan-2025 - A new study that provides unprecedented insights into the chemical bonding of antimony could have a profound impact on materials research. The collaboration between scientists from Leipzig University, RWTH Aachen University and the DESY synchrotron in Hamburg combined experimental measurements ...

Groundbreaking ceremony for new technology and start-up centre at DESY

"The DESY Innovation Factory offers founders excellent conditions to bring new ideas from research into practice even faster"

25-Nov-2024 - A combined total of more than 8,500 square meters of workspace will be created in just three years of construction at two locations: the main site on the DESY campus and a second very close by in the Altona Innovation Park. Complex laboratories, offices, and open working environments will be ...

Towards new reaction pathways

Insights on molecular dynamics in the ultrashort time window following UV excitation

30-Oct-2024 - The Attosecond Science group at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY has developed a novel light source capable of producing extremely short pulses for the investigation of UV-induced molecular dynamics with unprecedented temporal resolution. Scientists from DESY and the University ...

Quantum communicator molecule shows further promise

A light sensitive metal-containing organic molecule responds to infrared light – pointing towards practical use in quantum technologies

28-Aug-2024 - A family of molecules known to take in the rays and flex – fitting, then, that this summer, an international team using the pulsed properties of ultrafast optical lasers and synchrotron light sources like PETRA III at DESY could publish new findings about them. This family of molecules, which are ...