International Conference in Neutron Scattering: HZB-contributions awarded
Dr. Anup Kumar Bera from the department of Quantum Phenomena in Novel Materials convinced the committee with his poster about ‘Haldane chains’.
More than 800 participants had gathered for the International Conference in Neutron Scattering, held during 8-12 July 2013 in Edinburgh, to discuss advances in neutron research and the advancement of the neutron scattering instruments and techniques. A committee selected sixteen outstanding posters from the 650 poster presentations, two of these from HZB scientists.
Dr. Anup Kumar Bera from the department of Quantum Phenomena in Novel Materials convinced the committee with his poster about quantum magnetic properties in a one dimensional spin-1 chain magnet known as ‘Haldane chain’. When cooled down to low temperature, this material hosts a fascinating state of matter called a “quantum spin-liquid”.
Matthew Barrett received a poster prize for the best student poster contribution. He is a PhD-student at F-ISFM and works as well in the department fpr sample environment, where he optimizes humid environment cells for biological samples.
Dr. Elisa Wheeler received the Young Scientist Award from the International Union of Cristallography. The jury awarded her research work, which she completed as a postdoctoral student with Prof. Bella Lake and Dr. Nazmul Islam at the HZB. Elisa Wheeler is now a scientist at the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, Frankreich.
- Saskia Vormfelde will be the new Administrative Director at HZBThe successful science manager moves from Freiburg to Berlin on 1 September 2025.
- BESSY II: Insight into ultrafast spin processes with femtoslicingAn international team has succeeded at BESSY II for the first time to elucidate how ultrafast spin-polarised current pulses can be characterised by measuring the ultrafast demagnetisation in a magnetic layer system within the first hundreds of femtoseconds. The findings are useful for the development of spintronic devices that enable faster and more energy-efficient information processing and storage. The collaboration involved teams from the University of Strasbourg, HZB, Uppsala University and several other universities.
- BESSY II: Magnetic ‘microflowers’ enhance magnetic fields locallyA flower-shaped structure only a few micrometres in size made of a nickel-iron alloy can concentrate and locally enhance magnetic fields. The size of the effect can be controlled by varying the geometry and number of 'petals'. This magnetic metamaterial developed by Dr Anna Palau's group at the Institut de Ciencia de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB) in collaboration with her partners of the CHIST-ERA MetaMagIC project, has now been studied at BESSY II in collaboration with Dr Sergio Valencia. Such a device can be used to increase the sensitivity of magnetic sensors, to reduce the energy required for creating local magnetic fields, but also, at the PEEM experimental station, to study samples under much higher magnetic fields than currently possible.