Here you find current and previous news from the NUM division. For scientific highlights, please have a look here.
Décision concernant IMPACT: la mise à niveau de l’installation de recherche du PSI sera réalisée
Le financement des transformations à l’accélérateur de protons du PSI a été avalisé par le Parlement suisse.
Fractional quasiparticles in three dimensions
Specific signatures of fractionalization have been observed in a three-dimensional system known as quantum spin ice.
Mapping the Nanoscale Architecture of Functional Materials
A new X-ray technique reveals the 3D orientation of ordered material structures at the nanoscale, allowing new insights into material functionality.
Together for Science with Neutrons, Muons and X-rays
Strategic partnership between research facilities in UK and Switzerland will create new capabilities to address global challenges using neutrons, muons and X-rays.
Origin of the Suppression of Magnetic Order in MnSi under Hydrostatic Pressure
We experimentally study the evolution of the magnetic moment 𝑚 and exchange interaction 𝐽 as a function of hydrostatic pressure in the zero-field helimagnetic phase of the strongly correlated electron system MnSi. The suppression of magnetic order at ≈1.5 GPa is shown to arise from the 𝐽 collapse and not from a quantum fluctuations induced reduction of 𝑚. Our work provides benchmarks ...
IMPACT: pour la société suisse
Pour être à la pointe, au niveau mondial, dans le domaine des muons et de la production de radionucléides médicaux: l'importance de la mise à niveau prévue.
Operando phase mapping in multi-material laser powder bed fusion
Additive manufacturing (AM) or “3D printing” of metals, which builds structure layer by layer, has revolutionized the production of intricate 3D designs. Among its techniques, laser powder bed fusion (PBF-LB) excels in creating metallic parts with intricate designs and high precision. This process can combine different metals into innovative multi-material components with tailored properties, with regards to e.g., strength and thermal conductivity, surpassing the capabilities of single-material designs. However, ....
Continuum Excitations in a Spin Supersolid on a Triangular Lattice
Magnetic, thermodynamic, neutron diffraction and inelastic neutron scattering are used to study spin correlations in the easy-axis XXZ triangular lattice magnet K2Co(SeO3)2. Despite the presence of quasi-2D “supersolid” magnetic order, the low-energy excitation spectrum contains no sharp modes and is instead a broad and structured multiparticle continuum. Applying a weak magnetic field ...
Kagome breaks the rules at record breaking temperatures
Discovery of quantum phenomenon at accessible temperatures could be useful for quantum technologies.
Reentrant multiple-q magnetic order and a “spin meta-cholesteric” phase in Sr3Fe2O7
Topologically nontrivial magnetic structures such as skyrmion lattices are well known in materials lacking lattice inversion symmetry, where antisymmetric exchange interactions are allowed. Only recently, topological multi-q magnetic textures that spontaneously break the chiral symmetry, for example, three-dimensional hedgehog lattices, were discovered in centrosymmetric compounds, where they are instead driven by frustrated interactions. Here we show that ...
Souder sur une grande scène
Ceux qui grimpent sur ce podium font partie des meilleurs talents professionnels du monde. Melvin Deubelbeiss, électronicien au PSI, a remporté la médaille d’argent aux WorldSkills 2024.
Magnétisme en couches minces: un électron fait la différence
Une étape importante vers des mémoires informatiques novatrices
Ferromagnetic quantum critical point protected by nonsymmorphic symmetry in a Kondo metal
Quantum critical points (QCPs), zero-temperature phase transitions, are win- dows to fundamental quantum-mechanical phenomena associated with universal behaviour. Magnetic QCPs have been extensively investigated in the vicinity of antiferromagnetic order. However, QCPs are rare in metallic ferromagnets due to the coupling of the order parameter to electronic soft modes. Recently, antisymmetric spin-orbit coupling in noncentrosymmetric systems was suggested to protect ferromagnetic QCPs. Nonetheless, multiple centrosymmetric materials ...
The Zuoz school’s 26th edition
26th Zuoz Summer School on particle physics took place at the Lyceum Alpinum with close to 100 participants.
Quantum Spin Dynamics Due to Strong Kitaev Interactions in the Triangular-Lattice Antiferromagnet CsCeSe2
The extraordinary properties of the Kitaev model have motivated an intense search for new physics in materials that combine geometrical and bond frustration. In this Letter, we employ inelastic neutron scattering, spin wave theory, and exact diagonalization to study the spin dynamics in the perfect triangular-lattice antiferromagnet (TLAF) CsCeSe2. This material orders into a stripe phase, which is demonstrated to arise as a consequence of the off-diagonal bond-dependent terms in the spin Hamiltonian ...
Evidence for time-reversal symmetry-breaking kagome superconductivity
Superconductivity and magnetism are often antagonistic in quantum matter, although their intertwining has long been considered in frustrated-lattice systems. Here we utilize scanning tunnelling microscopy and muon spin resonance to demonstrate time-reversal symmetry-breaking superconductivity in kagome metal Cs(V, Ta)3Sb5, where the Cooper pairing exhibits magnetism and is modulated by it. In the magnetic channel, we observe spontaneous internal magnetism ...
Chiral kagome superconductivity modulations with residual Fermi arcs
Superconductivity involving finite-momentum pairing can lead to spatial-gap and pair-density modulations, as well as Bogoliubov Fermi states within the superconducting gap. However, the experimental realization of their intertwined relations has been challenging. Here we detect chiral kagome superconductivity modulations with residual Fermi arcs in KV3Sb5 and CsV3Sb5 using normal and Josephson scanning tunnelling microscopy down to 30 millikelvin with a resolved electronic energy difference at the microelectronvolt level. We observe a U-shaped ...
Room temperature magnetoelectric magnetic spirals by design
Frustrated magnets with ordered magnetic spiral phases that spontaneously break inversion symmetry have received significant attention from both fundamental and applied sciences communities due to the experimental demonstration that some of these materials can couple to the lattice and induce electric polarization. In these materials, the common origin of the electric and magnetic orders guarantees substantial coupling between them, which is highly desirable for applications ...
Magnetostructural Coupling at the Néel Point in YNiO3 Single Crystals
The recent discovery of superconductivity in infinite layer thin films and bulk Ruddlesden–Popper nickelates has stimulated the investigation of other predicted properties of these materials. Among them, the existence of magnetism-driven ferroelectricity in the parent compounds RNiO3 (R = 4f lanthanide and Y) at the onset of the Néel order, TN, has remained particularly elusive. Using diffraction techniques, we reveal here the existence of magnetostriction at TN in bulk YNiO3 single crystals. Interestingly, the associated lattice anomalies ...
New location of PSI User Office
You will find us easily at our new location in building WBBC at the front area of the PSI West parking lot.
Conventional superconductivity in the doped kagome superconductor Cs(V0.86Ta0.14)3Sb5 from vortex lattice studies
A hallmark of unconventional superconductors is a complex electronic phase diagram where intertwined orders of charge-spin-lattice degrees of freedom compete and coexist. While the kagome metals such as CsV3Sb5 also exhibit complex behavior, involving coexisting charge density wave order and superconductivity, much is unclear about the microscopic origin of the superconducting pairing. We study the vortex lattice in the superconducting state of Cs(V0.86Ta0.14)3Sb5, where the Ta-doping suppresses charge order and enhances superconductivity. Using small-angle neutron scattering ...
Observation of Mermin-Wagner behavior in LaFeO3/SrTiO3 superlattices
Two-dimensional magnetic materials can exhibit new magnetic properties due to the enhanced spin fluctuations that arise in reduced dimension. However, the suppression of the long-range magnetic order in two dimensions due to long-wavelength spin fluctuations, as suggested by the Mermin-Wagner theorem, has been questioned for finite-size laboratory samples. Here we study ...
Coexistence of Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism in Topological Magnet MnBi2Te4 Films
The interface of two materials can harbor unexpected emergent phenomena. One example is interface-induced superconductivity. In this work, we employ molecular beam epitaxy to grow a series of heterostructures formed by stacking together two nonsuperconducting antiferromagnetic materials, an intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 and an antiferromagnetic iron chalcogenide FeTe.
Non-coplanar helimagnetism in the layered van-der-Waals metal DyTe3
Van-der-Waals magnetic materials can be exfoliated to realize ultrathin sheets or interfaces with highly controllable optical or spintronics responses. In majority, these are collinear ferro-, ferri-, or antiferromagnets, with a particular scarcity of lattice-incommensurate helimagnets of defined left- or right-handed rotation sense, or helicity. Here, we report polarized neutron scattering experiments on DyTe3, whose layered structure has highly metallic tellurium layers separated by double-slabs of dysprosium square nets...
Un plan pour la plus grande machine du monde
Entretien avec Lea Caminada, cheffe du groupe Physique des hautes énergies au PSI, concernant le potentiel du prochain grand projet au CERN.
13th Erwin Felix Lewy Bertaut Prize to Daniel Mazzone
The laureate of the thirtheenth Erwin Félix Lewy Bertaut Prize is Dr. Daniel Mazzone from the Laboratory for Neutron Scattering and Imaging (LNS), NUM division. Daniel receives the prize for his outstanding contributions in the field of quantum effects in strongly correlated electron materials, employing cutting-edge X-ray and neutron scattering techniques.
Spectral evidence for Dirac spinons in a kagome lattice antiferromagnet
Emergent quasiparticles with a Dirac dispersion in condensed matter systems can be described by the Dirac equation for relativistic electrons, in analogy with Dirac particles in high-energy physics. For example, electrons with a Dirac dispersion have been intensively studied in electronic systems such as graphene and topological insulators. However, charge is not a prerequisite for Dirac fermions, and the emergence of Dirac fermions without a charge degree of freedom has been theoretically predicted to be realized in Dirac quantum spin liquids. These quasiparticles ...
Weyl spin-momentum locking in a chiral topological semimetal
Spin–orbit coupling in noncentrosymmetric crystals leads to spin–momentum locking – a directional relationship between an electron’s spin angular momentum and its linear momentum. Isotropic orthogonal Rashba spin–momentum locking has been studied for decades, while its counterpart, isotropic parallel Weyl spin–momentum locking has remained elusive in experiments. Theory predicts ...
2024 Guido Altarelli Award to Javier Mazzitelli
The Guido Altarelli Award honours the memory of the late Guido Altarelli, one of the founding fathers of QCD, an outstanding communicator of particle physics, and a mentor and strong supporter of Junior Scientists.
Javier Mazzitelli has been awarded the 2024 Guido Altarelli Award in acknowledgement of his distinguished contributions to the field of particle physics. The Guido Altarelli Award is awarded every year to junior scientists for outstanding scientific contributions to the fields covered by the DIS Conference series.
Surface oxidation/spin state determines oxygen evolution reaction activity of cobalt-based catalysts in acidic environment
Co-based catalysts are promising candidates to replace Ir/Ru-based oxides for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysis in an acidic environment. However, both the reaction mechanism and the active species under acidic conditions remain unclear. In this study, by combining surface-sensitive soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy characterization with electrochemical analysis, we discover that the acidic OER activity of Co-based catalysts are determined by their surface oxidation/spin state.