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 Dear colleagues |
We are proud to
present the first issue of the PSI Facility News, an electronic
newsletter with issues targeted at the users of the PSI
facilities. PSI operates on one campus three major user facilities for
research in physics, biology, and chemistry: the Swiss Light Source,
SLS, (3rd generation synchrotron),
the Swiss spallation neutron source, SINQ, and the Swiss Muon Source,
SµS, with a total of approximately 4000 visits from users
each year. A
combination of these three complementary methods offers
new opportunities to perform a full spectrum of analysis on a single site.
PSI Facility News will inform you quarterly about recent scientific
highlights, upcoming calls for proposals, news and events. We are open
to receive your suggestions for the information or topics you would
like to see covered in this letter (slsuo@psi.ch). |
| Research highlights |
 SLS: Exciting heavy metal - Retrieving structures in photocatalysis
Photocatalysts play an important role in a broad range of
applications, from photochemical conversion of light into
chemical energy through to initiating novel chemical reactions. One
family of compounds that has attracted much attention is the dinuclear
d8-d8 platinum, rhodium and iridium complexes that have a highly
reactive electronic excited state. When photo-excited with light these
systems have been shown to extract H-atoms from a variety of
substrates and initiate electron transfer processes. In this work we
examine the structure of the triplet excited state of a diplatinum
member of this photocatalyst family. Read the full story here
 SINQ: Giant superconductivity-induced modulation of the ferromagnetic magnetization in a cuprate–manganite superlattice(J.
Hoppler et al., Nature Materials 8, 315 (2009)) Artificial
multilayers offer unique opportunities for combining materials with
antagonistic orders such as superconductivity and ferromagnetism and
thus to realize novel quantum states. In particular, oxide multilayers
allow the combination of the high superconducting transition
temperature of cuprates with the versatile magnetic properties
of colossal-magnetoresistance manganites. However, apart from some
exploratory work, the in-depth investigation of their unusual
properties has only just begun. Read the full story here
 SµS: Iron-based superconductors
The competition of magnetic order and superconductivity is a
key element in the physics of all unconventional superconductors.
µSR has provided fundamental results about both the ground states and
their interplay in the Fe-pnictides. In two independent studies
structural and electronic phase diagrams were established. (H. Luetkens
et al., Nature Materials 8, 305 (2009) and A. Drew et al., Nature
Materials 8, 310 (2009)). Read the full story here
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| New calls for proposals |
SLS: Next call for the PX beamlines will be launched on May 8, 2009 with the submission deadline on June 15, 2009.
See our call schedule
SINQ: The next deadline for the submission of beamtime proposals for SINQ will be May 15, 2009, midnight. More information
SµS:
The next deadline for the submission of beamtime proposals for the
three SmS instruments GPS, LTF, and GPD will be June 1, 2009, midnight.
More information
An overview about all proposal submission deadlines of the PSI facilities can be obtained here.
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| Upcoming events |
June 2-4:
International workshop on the spectroscopy and coherent scattering
endstation and associated instrumentation at the European XFEL, PSI
Villigen, Switzerland
Information and registration
July 19-24: CORPES09, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
International workshop on strong correlations and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy Information and registration
August 1-7:
PSI Summer School on condensed matter research with a focus on functional
materials for energy, environment and health applications.
August 8-10: 20 summer school students
will have the opportunity to follow a practical training at the PSI
photon, neutron and muon facilities. Information and registration
October 12-13: JUM@P 09: First Joint
User meeting at PSI: This inititiative will bring together the users of
the three major facilities at PSI: SINQ, SLS, SµS. More information
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| Facility news |
SLS: SIS and ADRESS beamlines have been upgraded and will be fully operational in the second half of 2009.
Two new beamlines, Phoenix and Xtreme, are under construction and will see first light at
the end of 2009. Both beamlines are for X-ray absorption
spectroscopy, with Phoenix focussing on environmental and materials research, and Xtreme providing measurements under
extreme conditions.
SINQ/SµS: Restart of both facilities after the annual accelerator shutdown is expected for April 14, 2009 |
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