Poster award to Markus Kubin
Markus Kubin in front of his poster. © HZB
At the International Conference on X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure Markus Kubin has been selected to receive one out of five poster awards. More than 300 posters have been presented at the poster session.
Markus Kubin is a PhD student at HZB-Institute for Methods and Instrumentation on Synchrotron Radiation Research. He presented results with femtosecond x-ray pulses concerning reactions in the oxygen evolving complex in the protein Photosystem II. This system plays a central role in natural photosynthesis in plants, algae and cyano bacteria.
The XAFS16 was held from 23. – 28. August in Karlsruhe.
- The twisted nanotubes that tell a storyIn collaboration with scientists in Germany, EPFL researchers have demonstrated that the spiral geometry of tiny, twisted magnetic tubes can be leveraged to transmit data based on quasiparticles called magnons, rather than electrons.
- Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize and Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation 2025At the 27th BESSY@HZB User Meeting, the Friends of HZB honoured the dissertation of Dr Enggar Pramanto Wibowo (Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg). The Innovation Award on Synchrotron Radiation 2025 went to Prof. Tim Salditt (Georg-August-University Göttingen) and Professors Danny D. Jonigk and Maximilian Ackermann (both, University Hospital of RWTH Aachen University).
- Bright prospects for tin perovskite solar cellsPerovskite solar cells are widely regarded as the next generation photovoltaic technology. However, they are not yet stable enough in the long term for widespread commercial use. One reason for this is migrating ions, which cause degradation of the semiconducting material over time. A team from HZB and the University of Potsdam has now investigated the ion density in four different, widely used perovskite compounds and discovered significant differences. Tin perovskite semiconductors produced with an alternative solvent had a particular low ion density — only one tenth that of lead perovskite semiconductors. This suggests that tin-based perovskites could be used to make solar cells that are not only really environmentally friendly but also very stable.