Method found for analysing complex, tiny crystals

15-Feb-2023 - The atomic structure of solid substances can often be analysed quickly, easily and very precisely using X-rays. However, this requires that crystals of the corresponding substances exist. Chemist Professor Oliver Oeckler from Leipzig University and his team are developing methods to make this ...

Tailor-made X-rays for research and development

Start-up expansion with funding from IFB Hamburg

14-Oct-2021 - The high-tech Spin-Off TXproducts, founded in April 2021 on the DESY campus in Hamburg, will receive funding from Investitions- und Förderbank Hamburg (ifb). TX stands for "Tailored X-Ray", and the company develops solutions for customizing synchrotron X-rays beams for experiments at large-scale ...

Ultra-fast switching of helicity of circularly polarized light pulses

The ultra-fast change of light helicity is particularly interesting to observe processes in magnetic materials

03-Apr-2020 - At the BESSY II storage ring, a joint team of accelerator physicists, undulator experts and experimenters has shown how the helicity of circularly polarized synchrotron radiation can be switched faster - up to a million times faster than before. They used an elliptical double-undulator developed ...

No assembly required

Self-assembling silicone-based polymers

24-Oct-2018 - Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology, RIKEN and Tohoku University have developed a silicone polymer chain that can self-assemble into a 3D periodic structure. They achieved this by using their recently reported self-assembling triptycene molecules to modify the ends of the polymer ...

Artificial intelligence accelerates discovery of metallic glass

17-Apr-2018 - If you combine two or three metals together, you will get an alloy that usually looks and acts like a metal, with its atoms arranged in rigid geometric patterns. But once in a while, under just the right conditions, you get something entirely new: a futuristic alloy called metallic glass. The ...

New X-ray spectroscopy explores hydrogen-generating catalyst

23-Nov-2017 - Using a newly developed technique, researchers from Japan, Germany and the U.S. have identified a key step in production of hydrogen gas by a bacterial enzyme. Understanding these reactions could be important in developing a clean-fuel economy powered by hydrogen. The team studied hydrogenases - ...

High-speed switching for ultrafast electromechanical switches and sensors

31-Aug-2017 - Unlike the slow ferroelastic domain switching expected for ceramics, high-speed sub-microsecond ferroelastic domain switching and simultaneous lattice deformation are directly observed for the Pb(Zr0.4Ti0.6)O3 thin films. This exciting finding paves the way for high-frequency ultrafast ...

How X-rays in matter create genetoxic low-energy electrons

02-Feb-2017 - Researchers led by Kiyoshi Ueda of Tohoku University have investigated what x-rays in matter really do and identified a new mechanism of producing low-energy free electrons. Since the low-energy electrons cause damage to the matter, the identified process might be important in understanding and ...

New technique provides detailed views of metals’ crystal structure

Method uses readily available tools to quickly determine materials’ properties.

12-Jul-2016 - Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new combination of methods that can provide detailed information about the microstructure of polycrystalline metals. Such materials — composed of a random matrix of multiple small crystals rather than one single large crystal — are widely used for ...

Discovery of gold nanocluster 'double' hints at other shape-changing particles

21-Jun-2016 - Chemically the same, graphite and diamonds are as physically distinct as two minerals can be, one opaque and soft, the other translucent and hard. What makes them unique is their differing arrangement of carbon atoms. Polymorphs, or materials with the same composition but different structures, ...