Here you find current and previous news from the NUM division. For scientific highlights, please have a look here.
Precision Measurement of the Lamb Shift in Muonium
We report a new measurement of the n=2 Lamb shift in Muonium. Our result of 1047.2(2.3)stat(1.1)syst MHz comprises an order of magnitude improvement upon the previous best measurement. This value matches ...
High-performance detector for DMC enters hot commissioning phase
The cold neutron diffractometer DMC at SINQ is currently undergoing major upgrades. After the recent replacement of the cold neutron guide as part of the SINQ upgrade program, the installation of the new high-performance 2D position-sensitive detector successfully entered the hot commissioning phase.
Signatures of Weyl Fermion Annihilation in a Correlated Kagome Magnet
The manipulation of topological states in quantum matter is an essential pursuit of fundamental physics and next-generation quantum technology. Here we report the magnetic manipulation of Weyl fermions in the kagome spin-orbit semimetal Co3Sn2S2, observed by high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy. We demonstrate the exchange collapse of spin-orbit-gapped ferromagnetic Weyl loops into paramagnetic Dirac loops under suppression of the magnetic order.
Das schärfste Neutronenmikroskop der Welt
PSI-Forschende helfen beim Aufbau der Europäischen Spallationsquelle ESS.
The world’s most powerful neutron microscope
Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI in Villigen have delivered a key component for the ESTIA reflectometer at the European Spallation Source ESS based in Lund, Sweden. When it comes into service in 2026, ESS will be the world’s most powerful neutron source. Switzerland is making a vital contribution to the project. Scientists from across the globe will use ESS instruments to study processes and structures on the atomic scale, advancing materials research to a new level.
Amyloid β 42 fibril structure based on small-angle scattering
Alzheimers disease is one of the major global health challenges. Neuronal cell dysfunction and death are connected to the self-assembly of the amyloid β peptide (Aβ42) into oligomeric and fibrillar aggregates. The fibril surface can catalyze the formation of toxic oligomers via secondary nucleation.
Unconventional Pressure Dependence of the Superfluid Density in the Nodeless Topological Superconductor α-PdBi2
We investigated the superconducting properties of the topological superconductor α-PdBi2 at ambient and external pressures up to 1.77 GPa using muon spin rotation experiments. The ambient pressure measurements evince a fully gapped s-wave superconducting state in the bulk of the specimen. Alternating current magnetic susceptibility and muon spin rotation measurements manifest a continuous suppression of Tc with increasing pressure.
What you see is what you get: Automated particle detection without the false positives
A new algorithm by PSI researchers enables fast and reliable detection of spherical objects in images with a complex background.
Coexistence of structural and magnetic phases in van der Waals magnet CrI3
CrI3 has raised as an important system to the emergent field of two-dimensional van der Waals magnetic materials. However, it is still unclear why CrI3 which has a ferromagnetic rhombohedral structure in bulk, changed to anti-ferromagnetic monoclinic at thin layers. Here we show that this behaviour is due to the coexistence of both monoclinic and rhombohedral crystal phases followed by three magnetic transitions at TC1 = 61 K, TC2 = 50 K and TC3 = 25 K.
Magnetic Field Induced Quantum Spin Liquid in the Two Coupled Trillium Lattices of K2Ni2(SO4)3
Quantum spin liquids are exotic states of matter that form when strongly frustrated magnetic interactions induce a highly entangled quantum paramagnet far below the energy scale of the magnetic interactions. Three-dimensional cases are especially challenging due to the significant reduction of the influence of quantum fluctuations. Here, we report the magnetic characterization of K2Ni2(SO4)3 forming a three-dimensional network of Ni2+ spins.
Unveiling unconventional magnetism at the surface of Sr2RuO4
Materials with strongly correlated electrons often exhibit interesting physical properties. An example of these materials is the layered oxide perovskite Sr2RuO4, which has been intensively investigated due to its unusual properties. Whilst the debate on the symmetry of the superconducting state in Sr2RuO4 is still ongoing, a deeper understanding of the Sr2RuO4 normal state appears crucial as this is the background in which electron pairing occurs. Here, by using low-energy muon spin spectroscopy we discover the existence of surface magnetism in Sr2RuO4 in its normal state.
Silver medal at the EuroSkills
Silver medal for Mario Liechti at the EuroSkills in Graz, Austria.
CHRISP — All the key results in one place
A specialSciPost volume, entitled “Review of Particle Physics at PSI”, has recently been completed.
CHRISP — All the key results in one place
A specialSciPost volume, entitled “Review of Particle Physics at PSI”, has recently been completed.
First Components of ESTIA arrive at ESS in Lund
The European Spallation Source (ESS) is currently under construction in Lund, Sweden and is set to become the most powerful neutron source in Europe and world-wide. The PSI-ESS project is delivering state-of-the-art contributions to five instruments at ESS, which will be home to a suite of 15 novel instruments. Among the five PSI instruments, the reflectometer ESTIA stands out as it is delivered in its entirety by PSI ...
SINQ - performance of the new neutron guide system
In a recent open access article in "Neutron News" the performance of the new neutron delivery system after the SINQ upgrade has been described. Neutron flux gain factors between 2 and more than 10 have been measured at the various cold neutron instruments at SINQ.....
Magnetic correlations in the triangular antiferromagnet FeGa2S4
The crystal structure and magnetic correlations in triangular antiferromagnet FeGa2S4 are studied by x-ray diffraction, magnetic susceptibility, neutron diffraction, and neutron inelastic scattering. We report significant mixing at the cation sites and disentangle magnetic properties dominated by major and minor magnetic sites.
Soft-mode dynamics in the ferroelectric phase transition of GeTe
GeTe that exhibits a strong anharmonicity and a ferroelectric phase transition between the rhombohedral and cubic structures has emerged as one of the leading thermoelectric materials. Herein, combining molecular dynamics simulations and inelastic neutron scattering measurements, the lattice dynamics in GeTe have been investigated to reveal the soft-mode mechanisms across the phase transition.
First Components of ESTIA arrive at ESS
The European Spallation Source (ESS) is currently under construction in Lund, Sweden and is set to become the most powerful neutron source in Europe and world-wide. The PSI-ESS project is delivering state-of-the-art contributions to five instruments at ESS, which will be home to a suite of 15 novel instruments. Among the five PSI instruments, the reflectometer ESTIA stands out as it is delivered in its entirety by PSI ...
Vital role of magnetocrystalline anisotropy in cubic chiral skyrmion hosts
Magnetic anisotropy is anticipated to govern the formation of exotic spin textures reported recently in cubic chiral magnets, like low-temperature tilted conical and skyrmion lattice (SkL) states and metastable SkLs with various lattice geometry. Motivated by these findings, we quantified the cubic anisotropy in a series of CoZnMn-type cubic chiral magnets. We found that the strength of anisotropy is highly enhanced towards low temperatures. Moreover, not only the magnitude but also the character of cubic anisotropy drastically varies upon changing the Co/Mn ratio.
Unsplit superconducting and time reversal symmetry breaking transitions in Sr2RuO4 under hydrostatic pressure and disorder
There is considerable evidence that the superconducting state of Sr2RuO4 breaks time reversal symmetry. In the experiments showing time reversal symmetry breaking, its onset temperature, TTRSB, is generally found to match the critical temperature, Tc, within resolution. In combination with evidence for even parity, this result has led to consideration of a dxz ± idyz order parameter.
Magnetische Nanowelt
Am PSI stossen Forschende auf exotische Phänomene wie frustrierte Magnete und Nanowirbel, mit denen vielleicht dereinst Daten besser gespeichert werden können.
Two scenarios for superconductivity in CeRh2As2
CeRh2As2, a nonsymmorphic heavy fermion material, was recently reported to host a remarkable temperature versus z-axis magnetic-field phase diagram with two superconducting phases. In this material, the two inequivalent Ce sites per unit cell, related by inversion symmetry, introduce a sublattice structure corresponding to an extra internal degree of freedom. In this work, we propose a classification of the possible superconducting states in CeRh2As2 from the two Ce-sites' perspective.
RENiO3 Single Crystals (RE = Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy, Y, Ho, Er, Lu) Grown from Molten Salts under 2000 bar of Oxygen Gas Pressure
Schematic representation of the method used to grow RENiO3 nickelate single crystals covering the full 4f series and Y. This novel procedure, based on the use of moderate oxygen gas pressures (2000 bar), solvothermal growth in a temperature gradient, and highly reactive eutectic salt mixtures as fluxes, yields prismatic-shaped crystals with flat facets and sizes up to ∼75 μm.
Giant phonon anomalies in the proximate Kitaev quantum spin liquid α-RuCl3
The Kitaev quantum spin liquid epitomizes an entangled topological state, for which twoflavors of fractionalized low-energy excitations are predicted: the itinerant Majorana fermion and the Z2 gauge flux. It was proposed recently that fingerprints of fractional excitations are encoded in the phonon spectra of Kitaev quantum spin liquids through a novel fractional- excitation-phonon coupling. Here, we detect anomalous phonon effects in α-RuCl3 using inelastic X-ray scattering with meV resolution.
Unconventional chiral charge order in kagome superconductor KV3Sb5
Intertwining quantum order and non-trivial topology is at the frontier of condensed matter physics. A charge- density-wave-like order with orbital currents has been pro- posed for achieving the quantum anomalous Hall effect in topological materials and for the hidden phase in cuprate high-temperature superconductors. However, the experimental realization of such an order is challenging. Here we use high-resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy to discover an unconventional chiral charge order in a kagome material, KV3Sb5, with both a topological band structure and a superconducting ground state.
Magnetic and electronic ordering phenomena in the Ru2O6-layer honeycomb lattice compound AgRuO3
The silver ruthenium oxide AgRuO3 consists of honeycomb Ru25+O62− layers and can be considered and can be considered an analogue of SrRu2O6 with a different intercalation. We present measurements of magnetic susceptibility and specific heat on AgRuO3 single crystals, which reveal a sharp antiferromagnetic transition at 342(3) K. The electrical transport in single crystals of AgRuO3 is determined by a combination of activated conduction over an intrinsic semiconducting gap of ≈100 meV and carriers trapped and thermally released from defects.
High-resolution neutron imaging reveals kinetics of water vapor uptake into a sessile water droplet
Various imaging methods in materials research have pursued the characterization of material composition and its change in space and time. When it comes to liquid matter far from equilibrium, such as mixing and evaporating mixtures of solutes and solvents, of paramount importance in diverse solution-processing methods, the quantitative and in situ characterization remains challenging. Our research with the evaporating ...
Laser-induced transient magnons in Sr3Ir2O7 throughout the Brillouin zone
Ultrafast manipulation of magnetic states holds great promise for progress in our understanding of new quantum states and technical applications, but our current knowledge of transient magnetism is very limited. Our work elucidates the nature of transient magnetism in gapped antiferromagnets using Sr3Ir2O7 as a model material. We find that transient magnetic fluctuations are trapped throughout the entire Brillouin zone while remaining present beyond the time that is required to restore the original spin network.
Multiple quantum phase transitions of different nature in the topological kagome magnet Co3Sn2−xInxS2
The exploration of topological electronic phases that result from strong electronic correlations is a frontier in condensed matter physics. One class of systems that is currently emerging as a platform for such studies are so-called kagome magnets based on transition metals. Using muon spin-rotation, we explore magnetic correlations in the kagome magnet Co3Sn2−xInxS2 as a function of In-doping, providing putative evidence for an intriguing incommensurate helimagnetic (HM) state. Our results show that, while the undoped sample exhibits an out-of-plane ferromagnetic (FM) ground state, at 5% of In-doping the system enters a state in which FM and in-plane antiferromagnetic (AFM) phases coexist.