New joint leadership for BESSY II
Andreas Jankowiak and Antje Vollmer have been working together on a trusting basis for many years. As the new dual leadership, they are driving forward the technical and scientific development of BESSY II. © HZB/M.Setzpfandt
Andreas Jankowiak as new Technical Director and Facility Spokesperson Antje Vollmer share management responsibilities.
Prof. Andreas Jankowiak has been appointed Technical Director of BESSY II with a term of office of three years as of 1 June 2024 by resolution of the HZB board of directors. Antje Vollmer will start her second term as BESSY II Facility Spokesperson on 1 July 2024. Together, they form the new management duo to coordinate the scientific and technical development of the BESSY II X-ray source on behalf of the HZB management.
They will coordinate with internal stakeholders and external partners, prioritise their requirements, make recommendations to the HZB board of directors and prepare management decisions.
With the establishment of the new management duo, Prof. Bernd Rech, Scientific Director of HZB, wants to streamline the organisational processes around BESSY II and delegate related management tasks. "Our BESSY II+ application and the conceptual preliminary report for the BESSY III (pre-CDR) project have been evaluated extremely positively by scientific review committees," says Bernd Rech. "We must now create the conditions to successfully implement the strategy that has been positively assessed and supported by the supervisory bodies. The new division of labour should help to clearly identify and initiate the necessary steps."
The management duo will work on an equal basis and in mutual coordination. The Facility Spokesperson will focus on all priorities, project planning, investment plans and processes relating to user operation and the strategic and scientific development of the BESSY II user facility and the complementary lab infrastructure. The Technical Director is responsible for the operation of BESSY II and prioritises operational priorities, project planning, investment projects and processes as well as the strategic-technical development of the BESSY II facility and the central infrastructure required for this, including the IT infrastructure.
- Superconducting TES array X-ray spectrometer goes into operation at BESSY IIEurope's first and only TES-spectrometer at a synchrotron source is now in operation at BESSY II, developed within a collaboration between the HZB, the MPI-CEC (Mühlheim-an-der-Ruhr, Germany) and the NIST (Boulder CO, USA). The photon detection efficiency of the new instrument exceeds that of wavelength-dispersive X-ray emission spectrometers by a factor of 100 to 1000. It will be used to investigate the electronic properties of atomically thin layers, nanostructures and highly diluted atomic and molecular samples. The team is looking forward to receiving exciting research proposals from the user community.
- Magnon momentum microscopy: A new window into nanoscale spin-wavesAn international team lead by the Max Born Institute has developed a new type of momentum microscopy to image magnons — the quanta of collectively excited spins — directly in two-dimensional reciprocal space using soft X-rays. Measurements have taken place at BESSY II and PETRA III, first author ist the HZB physicist Steffen Wittrock. Owing to its remarkable sensitivity, simplicity, and access to nanometer-scale wavelengths, this novel technique establishes a powerful and versatile platform for exploring nonlinear magnon interactions, which are promising for future computing schemes.
- BESSY II: How intrinsic oxygen shortens the lifespan of solid-state batteriesAlthough solid-state batteries (SSBs) demonstrate high performance and are intrinsically safe, their capacity currently declines rapidly. A team from the TU Wien, Humboldt-University Berlin and HZB has now analysed a TiS₂|Li₃YCl₆ solid-state half-cell in operando at BESSY II using a special sample environment that allows for non-destructive investigation under real operating conditions. Data obtained by combination of soft and hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS and HAXPES) revealed a new degradation mechanism that had not previously been identified in solid-state batteries. They have gained some surprising insights, particularly regarding the harmful role played by intrinsic oxygen. This study provides valuable information for improving design and handling of such batteries.