MAX IV and BESSY II initiate new collaboration to advance materials science
Great joy among the partners of MAX IV and HZB after signing the Cooperation agreement. From left Olof Karis, Director at MAX IV, Antje Hasselberg, authorized signatory at HZB and Bernd Rech, Scientific Director at HZB. © HZB /Ronja Grünke
The Cooperation agreement was signed during a meeting between researchers from MAX IV and BESSY II in Berlin. © HZB
Swedish national synchrotron laboratory MAX IV and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) with BESSY II light source jointly announce the signing of a 5-year Cooperation Agreement. The new agreement establishes a framework to strengthen cooperation for operational and technological development in the highlighted fields of accelerator research and development, beamlines and optics, endstations and sample environments as well as digitalisation and data science.
The new agreement increases accessibility and overall opportunities for users to conduct advanced materials science investigations at MAX IV and BESSY II in a smooth, integrated manner. Facility collaboration through project-based initiatives may include, among others, reciprocal exchange of knowledge, instrumentation development and usage, data handling, scientific and technical staff, research initiatives, and PhD programme activities.
“Decades of collaboration between Sweden and HZB—rooted in, for example, shared work on energy-relevant materials and enabling methods and technologies—have continually advanced our field. The Cooperation Agreement we sign today gives MAX IV and HZB a solid platform to keep advancing synchrotron science into the 2030s and beyond”, says Olof Karis, Director of MAX IV.
Bernd Rech, Scientific Director at HZB highlights: “The development of new materials is key for a climate-neutral future, we are striving to achieve through science and innovation. I am delighted about the close relationship we have built up between MAX IV and HZB over the years. Thanks to this agreement, we will ensure that bright minds continue to work together, for example to investigate new types of materials and accelerator technologies.”
About the facilities
MAX IV Laboratory is a national large-scale research facility in Lund, Sweden providing scientists with the most brilliant X-rays for research in the materials and life sciences. The synchrotron is hosted by Lund University and is primarily funded by Swedish and international research funders, consortia, and Swedish research universities.
> MAX IV
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH (HZB) is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres in Germany and focuses on energy materials research and the further development of accelerator facilities.
HZB operates BESSY II light source as well as modern laboratories and instruments for the investigation of structures and processes in materials.
> Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin
- BESSY II: Phosphorus chains – a 1D material with 1D electronic propertiesFor the first time, a team at BESSY II has succeeded in demonstrating the one-dimensional electronic properties in phosphorus. The samples consisted of short chains of phosphorus atoms that self-organise at specific angles on a silver substrate. Through sophisticated analysis, the team was able to disentangle the contributions of these differently aligned chains. This revealed that the electronic properties of each chain are indeed one-dimensional. Calculations predict an exciting phase transition to be expected as soon as these chains are more closely packed. While material consisting of individual chains with longer distances is semiconducting, a very dense chain structure would be metallic.
- Did marine life in the palaeocene use a compass?Some ancient marine organisms produced mysterious magnetic particles of unusually large size, which can now be found as fossils in marine sediments. An international team has succeeded in mapping the magnetic domains on one of such ‘giant magnetofossils’ using a sophisticated method at the Diamond X-ray source. Their analysis shows that these particles could have allowed these organisms to sense tiny variations in both the direction and intensity of the Earth’s magnetic field, enabling them to geolocate themselves and navigate across the ocean. The method offers a powerful tool for magnetically testing whether putative biological iron oxide particles in Mars samples have a biogenic origin.
- What vibrating molecules might reveal about cell biologyInfrared vibrational spectroscopy at BESSY II can be used to create high-resolution maps of molecules inside live cells and cell organelles in native aqueous environment, according to a new study by a team from HZB and Humboldt University in Berlin. Nano-IR spectroscopy with s-SNOM at the IRIS beamline is now suitable for examining tiny biological samples in liquid medium in the nanometre range and generating infrared images of molecular vibrations with nanometre resolution. It is even possible to obtain 3D information. To test the method, the team grew fibroblasts on a highly transparent SiC membrane and examined them in vivo. This method will provide new insights into cell biology.