Research on Covid-19

The first application of stroboscopic neutron diffraction to studying lithium-ion batteries during operation establishes a new approach to unravelling the complex processes playing out in energy-storage materials.

The first application of stroboscopic neutron diffraction to studying lithium-ion batteries during operation establishes a new approach to unravelling the complex processes playing out in energy-storage materials.

Magnonic crystals are periodic magnetic structures, which are attracting great interest because of their potential use in low-power information technology based on spin waves, or magnons. Artificial spin ices have been recently studied as reconfigurable magnonic crystals, but achieving the required combination of magnetic state reconfigurability and desired magnon dispersions remains challenging. Here, researchers propose a hybrid system that makes use of a magnetic thin film underlayer to couple and strengthen the interaction between the artificial spin ice’s nanoelements though spin waves. Moreover, the magnetic state of the artificial spin ice gives rise to directional spin wave channels in the underlayer. This hybrid system opens a new direction for band structure engineering in reconfigurable magnonic crystals.

The mechanism of methane oxidation in the presence of water has been investigated in situ by means of APXPS. 

The thermal oxidation of single-crystalline Ir(100) films toward rutile IrO₂(110) has been investigated in situ by means of APXPS. 

LaTiO_xN_y oxynitride thin films are employed to study the surface modifications at the solid- liquid interface that occur during photoelectrocatalytic water splitting. Neutron reflectometry and grazing incidence x-ray absorption spectroscopy were utilised to distinguish between the surface and bulk signals, with a surface sensitivity of 3 nm.

Microcalcifications are a common sign in mammography. For example, in 90% of ductal carcinoma in situ microcalcifications are the first and unique sign indicating the presence of the lesion. Nevertheless, up to around 50% of the resulting biopsies reveal a benign lesion, a 'false positive'. Researchers were able to show now that breast microcalcifications detected in tumors have specific chemical and crystalline features different from those observed in benign samples. Moreover, microcalcifications detected in tumors but located outside the lesion show malignant features too. This indicates that cancer influences the surrounding tissue even if it exhibits apparently healthy morphological features. These results indicate that the biochemical differences between benign and malignant microcalcifications can be potentially identified by light-based tools, able to investigate microcalcifications inside the breast without performing biopsies.

Update of the SLS MX beamline operation during the COVID-19 period

We monitored the dynamic structure of the active sites in a catalyst containing highly dispersed copper-oxo species on ceria during low-temperature CO oxidation using time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy. We quantitatively demonstrate that the CO oxidation mechanism below 90 °C involves an oxygen intermediate strongly bound to the active sites as well as the redox activity of Cu²⁺/Cu⁺ and Ce⁴⁺/Ce³⁺ couples.

Elucidating the role of different degrees of freedom in a phase transition is crucial in the comprehension of complex materi- als. A phase transformation that attracts significant interest is the insulator-to-metal transition of Mott insulators, in which the electrons are thought to play the dominant role. Here, we use ultrafast laser spectroscopy and theoretical calculations ....

With experimental work demonstrating that the correlated ground state of the pyrochlore system Ce₂Sn₂O₇ is a quantum liquid of magnetic octupoles, an international team led by PSI researcher Romain Sibille establishes a fundamentally new state of matter: higher-rank multipole ice.

With experimental work demonstrating that the correlated ground state of the pyrochlore system Ce₂Sn₂O₇ is a quantum liquid of magnetic octupoles, an international team led by PSI researcher Romain Sibille establishes a fundamentally new state of matter: higher-rank multipole ice.

The TOMCAT beamline at the Swiss Light Source specializes in rapid high-resolution 3-dimensional tomographic microscopy measurements with a strong focus on biomedical imaging. The team has recently developed a technique to acquire micrometer-scale resolution datasets on the entire lung structure of a juvenile rat in its fresh natural state within the animal’s body and without the need for any fixation, staining or other alteration that would affect the observed structure (E. Borisova et al., 2020, Histochem Cell Biol).

With experimental work demonstrating that the correlated ground state of the pyrochlore system Ce₂Sn₂O₇ is a quantum liquid of magnetic octupoles, an international team led by PSI researcher Romain Sibille establishes a fundamentally new state of matter: higher-rank multipole ice.