Data Science

IMPACT on track

IMPACT was awarded the highest ranking in the SNSF evaluation.

swissmechanic business day

PSI at the Swissmechanic Business Day

When: 6. September 2022, 9am - 6pm

Where: Halle 622 Zürich-Oerlikon

Topic: «ENERGIE – Geht der Schweiz der Strom aus?»

Language: German

On the Swissmechanic Business Day various renowned speakers offer perspectives from  on the topic "ENERGY - Is Switzerland running out of electricity?". Innovations and products will be exhibited, including the Paul Scherrer Institute's ESI Cube - a mobile exhibit of the "Energy System Integration" experimental platform, which is available to research and industry partners. The Cube makes the complex topic of energy storage and conversion comprehensible in a playful way.

angewandte_chemie_-_2022_-_wu_-_frontispiz

Finding Ketenes in the Methanol to Olefins Process

How are the first olefins formed in the early stages of the methanol-to-olefins process? Detection of two reactive ketene species solves this long-standing puzzle.

Solar_rev_2022

Thin-Film Oxynitride Photocatalysts for Solar Hydrogen Generation: Separating Surface and Bulk Effects Using Synchrotron X-Ray and Neutron-Based Techniques

The conversion of solar light into hydrogen by photoelectrochemical water splitting is one of the potential strategies that can allow the development of a carbon-neutral energy cycle. Oxynitride semiconductors are promising materials for this application, although important limitations must still to be addressed. One of the most important issues is physicochemical degradation of the semiconductor, at the interface with water, where the electrochemical reactions occur. In this regard, thin films, with well-defined and atomically flat surfaces, are invaluable tools for characterizing material properties and degradation mechanisms, while identifying strategies to mitigate detrimental effects. Thin oxynitride films may allow the use of complementary characterizations, not applicable to conventional powder samples. In particular, the study of the solid–liquid interface can benefit enormously from the use of thin films for synchrotron-based surface-sensitive X-Ray scattering methods and neutron reflectometry. These investigation approaches promise to speed up the design and discovery of new materials for the production of solar fuels, while paving the way for similar applications in other research fields. This work aims at reviewing the literature contributions on oxynitride thin films for solar water splitting summarizing what is learnt so far and suggesting experimental strategies to unveil what is still not clear.

Event Gewerbeverein 2022

Lehrlingsevent 2022 wurde wieder durchgeführt

Die vier Gewerbevereine des Zurzibiet laden zum gemütlichen Lehrlingsevent ein.

LPBF Acoustic Emission

Deep learning-based monitoring of laser powder bed fusion processes

We present a novel monitoring strategy for 3D print processes that consists of developing and training a hybrid machine learning model that can classify regimes across different time scales based on heterogeneous sensing data. 

2022 KV-Abschluss

BM- und BS-Abschlussfeiern 2022

In verschiedenen Berufs- und Berufsmaturitätsschulen wurden die erfolgreichen Abschlüsse gefeiert. Wir sind stolz auf unsere Lernenden und ihre tollen Leistungen!

Weser et al

Dipolar spin-waves and tunable band gap at the Dirac points in the 2D magnet ErBr3

Topological magnon insulators constitute a growing field of research for their potential use as information carriers without heat dissipation. We report an experimental and theoretical study of the magnetic ground-state and excitations in the van der Waals two-dimensional honeycomb magnet ErBr3. We show that the magnetic properties of this compound are entirely governed by the dipolar interactions which generate a continuously degenerate non-collinear ground-state on the honeycomb lattice with spins confined in the plane.

 

Feriencamp 2022

2022 Feriencamp

Dieses Jahr konnten wir mit 34 Kinder von PSI-Mitarbeitenden das Feriencamp durchführen. Dank den vielen Helfenden verbrachten die Kinder eine interessante und tolle Woche am PSI. Herzlichen Dank allen, welche diese Woche möglich machen!

2022 Mühlebach

Mühlebach

Nachdem der Mühlebach im Lehrlingslager 2019 saniert wurde, hat der Verein Kultur am Mühlebach Böttstein festgestellt, dass die Kalkablagerungen wieder zunehmen. Paula M., Lernende Chemielaborantin EFZ im 3. Lehrjahr, nahm verschiedene Messungen vor, um den Kalkgehalt im Wasser zu untersuchen.

Marco Ranocchiari

Marco Ranocchiari takes on the lead of the ESI project as of July 1st, 2022!

«I am very excited to lead a strategic project and the extraordinarily competent and innovative ESI team for PSI, to help contribute to the transition to net zero.»

DFO_Banani_072022

Role of Dy on the magnetic properties of orthorhombic DyFeO3

Orthoferrites are a class of magnetic materials with a magnetic ordering temperature above 600 K, predominant G-type antiferromagnetic ordering of the Fe-spin system and, depending on the rare-earth ion, a spin reorientation of the Fe spin taking place at lower temperatures. DyFeO3 is of particular interest since the spin reorientation is classified as a Morin transition with the transition temperature depending strongly on the Dy-Fe interaction. Here, we report a detailed study of the magnetic and structural properties of microcrystalline DyFeO3 powder and bulk single crystal using neutron diffraction and magnetometry between 1.5 and 450 K. We find that, while the magnetic properties of the single crystal are largely as expected, the powder shows strongly modified magnetic properties, including a modified spin reorientation and a smaller Dy-Fe interaction energy of the order of 10 μeV. Subtle structural differences between powder and single crystal show that they belong to distinct magnetic space groups. In addition, the Dy ordering at 2 K in the powder is incommensurate, with a modulation vector of 0.0173(5) c∗, corresponding to a periodicity of ∼58 unit cells.

Highlight_Morillo_Candas

Widely tunable two-color x-ray free-electron laser pulses

SwissFEL team has demonstrated the generation of widely tunable two-color x-ray free-electron laser (FEL) pulses with unprecedented photon energy ratio between the two colors of about three (350 and 915 eV), in addition to a tunable time separation between the two pulses from negative time delays to up to 500 fs. These new capabilities open new opportunities to study ultrafast x-ray-induced energy transfer and relaxation processes in physics, chemistry, and biology.

La_LaO_vs_press_plasma

New Insight into the Gas Phase Reaction Dynamics in Pulsed Laser Deposition of Multi-Elemental Oxides

The gas-phase reaction dynamics and kinetics in a laser induced plasma are very much dependent on the interactions of the evaporated target material and the background gas. For metal (M) and metal–oxygen (MO) species ablated in an Ar and O2 background, the expansion dynamics in O2 are similar to the expansion dynamics in Ar for M+ ions with an MO+ dissociation energy smaller than O2. This is different for metal ions with an MO+ dissociation energy larger than for O2. This study shows that the plume expansion in O2 differentiates itself from the expansion in Ar due to the formation of MO+ species. It also shows that at a high oxygen background pressure, the preferred kinetic energy range to form MO species as a result of chemical reactions in an expanding plasma, is up to 5 eV.

igor_inorganic_chemistry_2022

Competing Magnetic Phases in LnSbTe (Ln = Ho and Tb)

The interplay between a topological electronic structure and magnetism may result in intricate physics. In this work, we describe a case of rather peculiar coexistence or competition of several magnetic phases below seemingly single antiferromagnetic transition in LnSbTe (Ln = Ho and Tb) topological semimetals, the magnetic members of the ZrSiS/PbFCl structure type (space group P4/nmm). Neutron diffraction experiments reveal a complex multi-step order below TN = 3.8 K (Ln = Ho) and TN = 6.4 K (Ln = Tb). Magnetic phases can be described using four propagation vectors k1 = (1/2 0 0) and k2 = (1/2 0 1/4) at a base temperature of 1.7 K, which transform into incommensurate vectors k1′ = (1/2 – δ 0 0) and k3 = (1/2 – δ 0 1/2) at elevated temperatures in both compounds. Together with the refined models of magnetic structures, we present the group theoretical analysis of magnetic symmetry of the proposed solutions. These results prompt further investigations of the relation between the electronic structure of those semimetals and the determined antiferromagnetic ordering existing therein.

cvjetinovic_djordje

Welcome Đorđe

We are happy to welcome Dr Đorđe Cvjetinović. 

Đorđe will be working on the SINCHRON project as part of his postdoctoral fellowship.

tecday_2022-45_jan

TFI goes TecDays

In July 2022, two PhDs of our Thin Films and Interfaces (TFI) Group offered a practical teaching module to pupils at the Kantonsschule Stadelhofen as part of the Swiss TecDays. These are one-day events at Swiss grammar schools, organized by the Schweizerische Akademie der Technischen Wissenschaften (SATW), to support and strengthen technology education at schools. By bringing together pupils and experts from industry, universities, or research institutions, TecDays aims to raise an early awareness for technology and science.