Uppsala Berlin Joint Laboratory “Our willingness to cooperate is our strength”
Great political interest for the new Uppsala Berlin Joint Laboratory (UBjL): On the 4th of November, Sweden’s ambassador in Germany, Dr. Lars Danielsson, came personally to the HZB where the UBjL is established for the inauguration of the joint project.
“Many parts of the world are currently regarded as more dynamic than Europe,” Dr. Danielsson said in his opening speech: “But we have great strengths – namely our skill and our willingness to cooperate.” These strengths, the ambassador continued, can be seen clearly in the UBjL: “Such excellent joint research projects lead to results that will bring great benefits to society, our children and our grandchildren.” Dr. Danielsson then gave the symbolic start signal for two experimental stations that will be supervised by the Swedish-German workgroup belonging to the UBjL.
The “Uppsala Berlin Joint Laboratory” is headed by Professor Nils Mårtensson, University of Uppsala, and Professor Alexander Föhlisch, Head of the HZB Institute “Methods and Instrumentation for Synchrotron Radiation Research. “We are very proud that Professor Mårtensson has invested resources from this ERC Advanced Grant in the UBjL,” HZB Scientific Director Prof. Dr. Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla said at the opening. This funding, co-financed by the HZB, has allowed the development of worldwide unique study methods for functional materials.
These methods are based on angle-resolved time-of-flight electron spectroscopy (ARTOF) and MHz pulse extraction at BESSY II. The ARTOF instruments were developed in Sweden by the University of Uppsala and the company Scienta-Omicron in close collaboration with the HZB. “The synchrotron source BESSY II delivers pulses with the most suitable time structure worldwide for optimally using the instruments,” said Svante Professor Svante Svensson, who is part of the UBjL team at BESSY II in Berlin. At the UBjL, the researchers can study the state of functional materials at the lowest possible X-ray dosage. Further methods allow detailed detection of the electronic structure of materials.
- What Zinc concentration in teeth revealsTeeth are composites of mineral and protein, with a bulk of bony dentin that is highly porous. This structure is allows teeth to be both strong and sensitive. Besides calcium and phosphate, teeth contain trace elements such as zinc. Using complementary microscopy imaging techniques, a team from Charité Berlin, TU Berlin and HZB has quantified the distribution of natural zinc along and across teeth in 3 dimensions. The team found that, as porosity in dentine increases towards the pulp, zinc concentration increases 5~10 fold. These results help to understand the influence of widely-used zinc-containing biomaterials (e.g. filling) and could inspire improvements in dental medicine.
- Element cobalt exhibits surprising propertiesThe element cobalt is considered a typical ferromagnet with no further secrets. However, an international team led by HZB researcher Dr. Jaime Sánchez-Barriga has now uncovered complex topological features in its electronic structure. Spin-resolved measurements of the band structure (spin-ARPES) at BESSY II revealed entangled energy bands that cross each other along extended paths in specific crystallographic directions, even at room temperature. As a result, cobalt can be considered as a highly tunable and unexpectedly rich topological platform, opening new perspectives for exploiting magnetic topological states in future information technologies.
- MXene for energy storage: More versatile than expectedMXene materials are promising candidates for a new energy storage technology. However, the processes by which the charge storage takes place were not yet fully understood. A team at HZB has examined, for the first time, individual MXene flakes to explore these processes in detail. Using the in situ Scanning transmission X-ray microscope 'MYSTIIC' at BESSY II, the scientists mapped the chemical states of Titanium atoms on the MXene flake surfaces. The results revealed two distinct redox reactions, depending on the electrolyte. This lays the groundwork for understanding charge transfer processes at the nanoscale and provides a basis for future research aimed at optimising pseudocapacitive energy storage devices.