New Helmholtz Young Investigator Group at HZB
Felix Büttner has set up a holography chamber at Brookhaven National Laboratory. © privat
Dr. Felix Büttner will establish a Helmholtz Young Investigator Group (YIG) on topological solitons at the HZB beginning in March 2020. Topological solitons occur in magnetic quantum materials and can contribute to extremely energy-efficient switching processes. Büttner wants to develop a new imaging technique at BESSY II to study these quasi-particles.
Dr. Felix Büttner has received funding from the Helmholtz Association following a tough selection process. He will now build up his own research group, a Helmholtz Young Investigator Group (YIG).
Until now, he was doing research as a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA, USA. Büttner has already distinguished himself with numerous publications in the field of magnetic quantum materials.
At the HZB, he wants to develop a new high-resolution technique at the BESSY II synchrotron source that will enable the imaging of complex magnetic structures under realistic conditions at room temperature.
He will focus on antiferromagnetic topological solitons that occur in certain materials and are considered important candidates for extremely energy-efficient data storage. “There has been little progress in antiferromagnetic soliton research so far due to a lack of high-resolution imaging techniques that can detect antiferromagnetic topological solitons in actual devices”, Büttner explains and adds: “The HZB offers high-tech facilities and expertise in all these areas, making it the perfect place for this ambitious project.”
- Mesoporous silicon: Semiconductor with new talentsSilicon is the best-known semiconductor material. However, controlled nanostructuring drastically alters the material's properties. Using a specially developed etching apparatus, a team at HZB has now produced mesoporous silicon layers with countless tiny pores and investigated their electrical and thermal conductivity. For the first time, the researchers elucidated the electronic transport mechanism in this mesoporous silicon. The material has great potential for applications and could also be used to thermally insulate qubits for quantum computers.
- Innovative battery electrode made from tin foamMetal-based electrodes in lithium-ion batteries promise significantly higher capacities than conventional graphite electrodes. Unfortunately, they degrade due to mechanical stress during charging and discharging cycles. A team at HZB has now shown that a highly porous tin foam is much better at absorbing mechanical stress during charging cycles. This makes tin foam an interesting material for lithium batteries.
- BESSY II: Building block of the catalyst for oxygen formation in photosynthesis reproducedIn a small manganese oxide cluster, teams from HZB and HU Berlin have discovered a particularly exciting compound: two high spin manganese centres in two very different oxidation states and. This complex is the simplest model of a catalyst that occurs as a slightly larger cluster in natural photosynthesis, where it enables the formation of molecular oxygen. The discovery is considered an important step towards a complete understanding of photosynthesis.