Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute/Mahir Dzambegovic
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have succeeded for the first time in looking inside materials using the method of transient grating spectroscopy with ultrafast X-rays at SwissFEL. The experiment at PSI is a milestone in observing processes in the world of atoms. The researchers are publishing their research results today in the journal
Nature Photonics.
The structures on microchips are becoming ever tinier; hard disks write entire encyclopedias on magnetic disks the size of a fingernail. Many technologies are currently breaking through the boundaries of classical physics. But in the nanoworld, other laws apply - those of quantum physics. And there are still many unanswered questions: How does heat actually travel through a semiconductor material at the nanoscale? What exactly happens when individual bits are magnetised in a computer hard disk, and how fast can we write? There are still no answers to these and many
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IMAGE: Aldo Antognini is happy that the long research effort yielded such an outstanding result. view more
Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute/Markus Fischer
In experiments at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, an international research collaboration has measured the radius of the atomic nucleus of helium five times more precisely than ever before. With the aid of the new value, fundamental physical theories can be tested and natural constants can be determined even more precisely. For their measurements, the researchers needed muons - these particles are similar to electrons but are around 200 times heavier. PSI is the only research site in the world where enough so-called low-energy muons are produced for such experiments. The researchers are publishing their results today in the journal