NEAT: The chamber from Spain - HZB future log's latest addition
At first, the various parts are carefully unloaded so that they can be lifted quickly into the building through the roof of the NEAT building's newest addition.
© Stefanie Kodalle
Since the HZB future log (#HZBzlog) went live in March of this year, there have been a total of 15 episodes on building and developing our future projects. The focus has been on three projects in particular: high field magnet (for a total of seven episodes), EMIL (five episodes), and BESSY-VSR (three episodes). Next, the NEAT project team is taking the #HZBzlog stage.
The first episode entitled "The chamber from Spain" lets those watching and reading trace the detector chamber's course. Constructed in Spain, the chamber is slated to arrive at the HZB within the next couple of days. Witnessing the chamber's spectacular lift into the neutron conductor hall through the building's ceiling will be one of the episode's highlights.
The first NEAT episode will pick up where the current high field magnet (HFM) episode "Stairway to Heaven" left off. The episode's title, which is loosely based on the Led Zeppelin rock ballad of the same name, is no accident. Because if the electricity tests turn out successful, the HFM team will indeed feel fairly heavenly, meaning not much will stand in the way of successfully starting operation of the magnet.
As always, we will also be letting you know about stuff to know about current topics that are part of the team's research activities. In the case of "Stairway to Heaven," it might look something like this: Hartmut Ehmler talks about how the team gradually increases the electric current's strength that is being sent through the magnet. He tells of unexpected rises in temperature and of the team's response to them. Right after, Jonas Böhm explains facts to know about helium, the coolant of extremes. And Antonia Rötger will be speaking on the topic of quenching.
The NEAT episode will also provide interesting tidbits and special features on the topic of the construction work including a piece on the "travel window." Not sure what we're talking about? Just drop by and stay tuned to #hzbzlog (www.hzbzlog.com). You're of course invited to comment or ask questions. For HZB staff, that bit will be a piece of cake. All they have to do is click the "comment" button and register using their HZB email address.
- BESSY II: Phosphorous chains – a 1D material with 1D electronic propertiesFor the first time, a team at BESSY II has succeeded in demonstrating the one-dimensional electronic properties of a material through a highly refined experimental process. The samples consisted of short chains of phosphorus atoms that self-organise at specific angles on a silver substrate. Through sophisticated analysis, the team was able to disentangle the contributions of these differently aligned chains. This revealed that the electronic properties of each chain are indeed one-dimensional. Calculations predict an exciting phase transition to be expected as soon as these chains are more closely packed. While material consisting of individual chains with longer distances is semiconducting, a very dense chain structure would be metallic.
- Did marine life in the palaeocene use a compass?Some ancient marine organisms produced mysterious magnetic particles of unusually large size, which can now be found as fossils in marine sediments. An international team has succeeded in mapping the magnetic domains on one of such ‘giant magnetofossils’ using a sophisticated method at the Diamond X-ray source. Their analysis shows that these particles could have allowed these organisms to sense tiny variations in both the direction and intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field, enabling them to geolocate themselves and navigate across the ocean. The method offers a powerful tool for magnetically testing whether putative biological iron oxide particles in Mars samples have a biogenic origin.
- Perovskite solar cells from Germany are competing with China's PV technology - HZB 2025 Technology Transfer AwardPhotovoltaics is the leading technology in the transition to clean energy. However, traditional silicon-based solar technology has reached its efficiency limit. Therefore, a HZB-team has developed a perovskite-based multi-junction cell architecture. For this, Kevin J. Prince and Siddhartha Garud received the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin's (HZB) Technology Transfer Prize of 5,000 euros.