From Excited Atoms to Functionality – ERC Advanced Grant Awarded to Alexander Föhlisch
Alexander Föhlisch is head of the HZB Institute Methods and Instrumentation for Synchrotron Radiation Research and holds a professorship at University Potsdam. © HZB
Under the EU Horizon 2020 Programme for Research and Innovation, Alexander Föhlisch has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant. The physicists is holding a joint appointment at the Institute for Physics and Astronomy of the University of Potsdam and at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie. He is to receive a total of 2.5 million Euros over a five-year period to support his work on highly selective methods of detection using synchrotron light and X-ray lasers.
The European Research Council (ERC) promotes unconventional, trailblazing research and supports outstanding researchers. Leading scientists at the University of Potsdam are presently carrying out work under six other ERC grants.
The new research project is named “Excited-State Dynamics from Anti-Stokes and Non-Linear Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering” (EDAX). Under this programme, Prof. Föhlisch will study how chemical reaction pathways and phase-transition behaviour can be probed using novel X-ray spectrographic methods. These will serve as a foundation for efficient energy conversion and future energy-efficient information technologies. The University of Potsdam is pushing ahead with cutting-edge research through the EDAX project and consolidating the rising success of the University in EU research programmes.
Alexander Föhlisch studied physics at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen and received his German Diplom degree from the University of Hamburg and Master’s degree in physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNY). Prior to completing his research and teaching responsibilities for his professorial qualification in Experimental Physics at the University of Hamburg, he conducted his doctoral research at the Advanced Light Source of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and received his doctoral degree from Uppsala University in Sweden. As a jointly appointed Professor at the University of Potsdam and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, he is determining the electronic structure and ultrafast dynamics of atomic entities using innovative X-ray methods. Fundamental properties of materials – such as molecular dynamics at boundaries, switching processes in solids and chemical bonding at active centres – can be determined this way.
- Battery research: visualisation of aging processes operandoLithium button cells with electrodes made of nickel-manganese-cobalt oxides (NMC) are very powerful. Unfortunately, their capacity decreases over time. Now, for the first time, a team has used a non-destructive method to observe how the elemental composition of the individual layers in a button cell changes during charging cycles. The study, now published in the journal Small, involved teams from the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the University of Münster, researchers from the SyncLab research group at HZB and the BLiX laboratory at the Technical University of Berlin. Measurements were carried out in the BLiX laboratory and at the BESSY II synchrotron radiation source.
- New instrument at BESSY II: The OÆSE endstation in EMILA new instrument is now available at BESSY II for investigating catalyst materials, battery electrodes and other energy devices under operating conditions: the Operando Absorption and Emission Spectroscopy on EMIL (OÆSE) endstation in the Energy Materials In-situ Laboratory Berlin (EMIL). A team led by Raul Garcia-Diez and Marcus Bär showcases the instrument’s capabilities via a proof-of-concept study on electrodeposited copper.
- Green hydrogen: A cage structured material transforms into a performant catalystClathrates are characterised by a complex cage structure that provides space for guest ions too. Now, for the first time, a team has investigated the suitability of clathrates as catalysts for electrolytic hydrogen production with impressive results: the clathrate sample was even more efficient and robust than currently used nickel-based catalysts. They also found a reason for this enhanced performance. Measurements at BESSY II showed that the clathrates undergo structural changes during the catalytic reaction: the three-dimensional cage structure decays into ultra-thin nanosheets that allow maximum contact with active catalytic centres. The study has been published in the journal ‘Angewandte Chemie’.