Data Science

Cholesterol (Chol-OH) and its conjugates are powerful molecules for engineering the physicochemical and magnetic properties of phospholipid bilayers in bicelles.

Superposition of orbital eigenstates is crucial to quantum technology utilizing atoms, such as atomic clocks and quantum computers, and control over the interaction between atoms and their neighbours is an essential ingredient for both gating and readout. A team of researchers including Photon Science division head Gabriel Aeppli has demonstrated THz laser pulse control of Si:P orbitals using multiple orbital state admixtures, observing beat patterns produced by Zeeman splitting. The beats are an observable signature of the ability to control the path of the electron, which implies we can now control the strength and duration of the interaction of the atom with different neighbours. This could simplify surface code networks which require spatially controlled interaction between atoms. The full article can be read in Nature Communications

Controlled motions of atoms using ultrashort electric field pulses allow to manipulated the properties of a material on ultrafast timescales. Here we show how metallic structures can be used to enhance a THz electric field pulse and track the induced atomic motions with ultrashort x-ray pulses emitted by a X-ray free electron laser.

In soft ferromagnetic materials, the smoothly varying magnetization leads to the formation of fundamental patterns such as domains, vortices and domain walls. These have been studied extensively in thin films of thicknesses up to around 200 nanometres, in which the magnetization is accessible with current transmission imaging methods that make use of electrons or soft X-rays.

The study of interacting spin systems is of fundamental importance for modern condensed-matter physics. On frustrated lattices, magnetic exchange interactions cannot be simultaneously satisfied, and often give rise to competing exotic ground states. The frustrated two-dimensional Shastry–Sutherland lattice realized by SrCu₂(BO₃)₂ is an important test to our understanding of quantum magnetism.

By combining a scalable cutting-edge synthesis method with time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements, it was possible to capture the dynamic local electronic and geometric structure during realistic operando conditions for highly active OER perovskite nanocatalysts.

Scientists from PSI and the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have shown experimentally, for the first time, a quantum phase transition in strontium copper borate, the only material to date that realizes the famous Shastry–Sutherland quantum many-body model.

By combining bulk sensitive soft-x-ray angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first- principles calculations we explored the bulk electron states of WTe₂, a candidate type-II Weyl semimetal featuring a large nonsaturating magnetoresistance. Despite the layered geometry suggesting a two-dimensional electronic structure, we directly observe a three-dimensional electronic dispersion.

Lignin is a major constituent of plants, and may be used as a precursor for fuels and fine chemicals. Catalytic fast pyrolysis of lignin is one of the most promising approaches. By using vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron radiation and threshold photoelectron spectroscopy we could identify elusive intermediates, which are responsible for the formation of phenol and benzene and could thus tackle this reaction mechanism. Mechanistic understanding could enable targeted improvement of production methods in the future, beyond the currently used "cook-and-look" approach.

Scientists at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University - one of the leading authors, Simon Gerber, has in the meantime relocated to PSI - have made the first direct measurements, and by far the most precise ones, of how electrons move in sync with atomic vibrations rippling through an quantum material, in the present study an unconventional superconductor, as if they were “dancing" to the same beat.

Research experience from California's X-ray free-electron laser benefits SwissFEL. It's the camera that allows researchers to make extremely rapid processes visible: the X-ray free-electron laser. Currently, however, only three sites worldwide—in the US, Japan and South Korea—have facilities capable of carrying out such measurements. Two current articles in Science and Nature Communications co-authored by researchers now at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI exemplify the kind of outstanding scientific work that can be carried out at such facilities, enabling new insights into the mechanisms of superconductors and magnetic switching in molecules. The measurements were conducted at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) free-electron laser in California. Press release PSI / Press release SLAC

A team of researchers including Photon Sciences division head Gabriel Aeppli have demonstrated the first non-destructive imaging of atomically thin nanostructures in silicon. Such structures are the building blocks of quantum devices for physics research and are likely to serve as key components of devices for next-generation classical and quantum information processing. Until now, the characteristics of buried dopant nanostructures could only be inferred from destructive techniques and/or the performance of the final electronic device; this severely limits engineering and manufacture of real-world devices based on atomic-scale lithography. In work recently published in Science Advances, the team use scanning microwave microscopy (SMM) to image and electronically characterize three-dimensional phosphorus nanostructures fabricated via scanning tunneling microscope based lithography.

We study by means of bulk and local probes the d-metal alloy Ni_1-xV_x close to the quantum critical concentration, x_c ≈ 11.6%, where the ferromagnetic transition temperature vanishes. The magnetization-field curve in the ferromagnetic phase takes an anomalous power-law form with a nonuniversal exponent that is strongly x dependent and mirrors the behavior in the paramagnetic phase.

A very thin layer on this beetle’s wings exhibits a complicated structure on the nanoscale that gives them a bright white color. X-ray nanotomography acquired at the Swiss Light Source provides a faithful image of this structure in three dimensions with which scientists can confirm its evolutionary optimization: just enough material for an efficient reflection of white light.

Ultracold neutrons (UCNs) are key for precision studies of fundamental parameters of the neutron and in searches for new charge-parity-violating processes or exotic interactions beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The most prominent example is the search for a permanent electric-dipole moment of the neutron (nEDM). We have performed an experimental comparison of the leading UCN sources currently operating.

We employ time-resolved resonant x-ray diffraction to study the insulator-to-metal transition that is launched via resonant excitation of an infrared-active optical phonon mode in a half doped manganite. We find that the charge order reduces promptly with a highly nonlinear (quartic) dependence on excitation fluence.

Mixtures of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) and its lanthanide ion (Ln³⁺) chelating phospholipid conjugate, 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-ethanolamine-diethylene triaminepentaacetate (DMPE-DTPA), assemble into highly magnetically responsive polymolecular assemblies such as DMPC/DMPE-DTPA/Ln³⁺ (molar ratio 4:1:1) bicelles.