Research Highlight

ACS Editors’ Choice Nano Letters - 2016 The design and characterization of functionalized nanoparticle supracrystals require atomically resolved information on both the metallic core and the external organic ligand shell. Ultrafast small-angle electron diffraction has enabled to resolve both static ordering properties and photo-induced motions of supracrystals of alkanethiol-capped gold nanoparticles, with combined fs temporal and Å spatial resolution. Key to this advance was the unique capability to retrieve the local symmetry of the real-space objects creating an electron speckle pattern by computing angular cross-correlation functions. This method, well known in the X-rays community, has been applied to the analysis of [...]

An innovative device studies gold nanoparticles in depth EPFL NEWS - 2016 Ultrafast Electron Diffraction exploits the high sensitivity that electrons have for interacting with matter. A unique UED device developed by Giulia Mancini and Fabrizio Carbone (EPFL), in collaboration with Jom Luiten (TU/e) and Tatiana Latychevskaia (PSI), can study monolayers and very thin samples containing light elements, e.g. hydrogen and carbon. And when it comes to dense aggregates and small molecules, the small-angle time-resolved electron diffractometer can achieve the extreme sensitivity of a traditional Free Electron Laser, but at a fraction of the cost. This set-up is a reference for [...]

The Sharpest Images JILA News – Laser Physics Nanoscience 2017 The world’s most powerful CDI (Coherent Diffractive Imaging) microscope at a wavelength of 13 nm­­. Remarkably, it contains no lenses. Rather, a nanoscale object is illuminated with coherent high-harmonic beams of extreme ultraviolet light. The scattered light is collected and used with a powerful algorithm to create an image of the object with sub-wavelength spatial resolution. Find out more

Research demonstrates the use of X-ray spectroscopy to study thermally-induced reactions AIP Scilight 2019 Light-driven reactions are only a subset of chemical and biochemical processes. An extension of time-resolved spectroscopic methods to thermally driven reactions would include a much larger variety of such processes. In a new paper, Cannelli et al. demonstrate the first use of a time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy probe in a temperature jump experiment to observe structural changes over the course of a chemical reaction. Find out more

Unraveling the initial molecular events of respiration EPFL NEWS - 2020 Respiration is a fundamental process of all living things, allowing them to produce energy, stay healthy, and survive. In cells, respiration involves what are known as “respiratory proteins”, e.g. hemoglobin in the blood and myoglobin in muscles. Physicists from Switzerland, Japan and Germany have unveiled the mechanism by which the first event of respiration takes place in heme proteins. Find out more

A universal structural deformation in all heme proteins EPFL NEWS - 2020 The structure-function relationship is at the heart of biology: specific structural changes in proteins are usually associated with specific functions. This is particularly the case with hemoproteins, which have a wide range of functions, such as oxygen fixation and transport, and neurotransmission. Find out more