2025

An interdisciplinary research team from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) at DESY, the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB), the ... Making moving molecules visible Time-resolved structural biology aims to capture biological molecules not just as static structures, but in motion – thus gaining important insights into how ...

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Single-particle diffractive imaging (SPI) using X-ray free-electron lasers allows researchers to reconstruct the structure of nanoparticles and biomolecules. However, the technique often requires ... Laser-induced alignment utilizes the interaction between the anisotropic polarizability of the molecule and the electric field of a laser pulse. The laser pulse induces a transient electric dipole ...

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A DESY team led by CFEL researcher Andreas Maier substantially improved the properties of a laser-plasma accelerated electron beam opening up new ... Conventional electron accelerators use radio waves which are directed into so-called resonator cavities. The radio waves transfer energy to the electrons as they fly past, increasing their velocity. ...

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Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at CFEL have developed an innovative method to study ultrafast ... Magnetic fields are fundamental to controlling the magnetization of materials. Under static or slowly varying conditions, a material's magnetization aligns with the external field like a compass ...

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Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at CFEL in collaboration with DTU ... Single photons are essential for quantum metrology and precision spectroscopy, where they significantly enhance measurement accuracy. While most existing single-photon sources (SPEs) operate in the ...

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Light-sensitive nanoparticles promise a wide range of applications, for example in the field of sensor technology or energy generation. However, these require knowledge and control of the processes ... Plasmons are collective electronic excitations that give rise to unique effects in matter. They provide a means of achieving extreme light confinement, enabling groundbreaking applications such as ...

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A collaborative team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at CFEL,

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Professors Jie Shan and Kin Fai Mak, world leaders in the characterization and control of two-dimensional quantum materials, have become directors of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and ... The renowned scientists have established two new joint departments at the Institute. They complement the existing departments of Theory, (director: Angel Rubio), Condensed Matter Dynamics (director: ...

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Over the past years, scientists worldwide have collaborated extensively to develop cutting-edge approaches with helical free-electron laser (FEL) pulses. These advancements aim to capture some of the ... FELs offer an extraordinary ability to study matter with atomic resolution on the natural timescales of atomic and electronic motion—ranging from femtoseconds to attoseconds. The advent of ...

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Chirality is a fundamental property of matter that determines many biological, chemical and physical phenomena. Chiral solids, for example, offer exciting opportunities for catalysis, sensing and ... Chirality refers to objects that cannot be superimposed to their mirror images through any combination of rotations or translations, much like the distinct left and right hands of a human. In chiral ...

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A team of researchers from the University of Hamburg and collaborators has achieved a breakthrough by capturing images of individual nanoparticles ... Attosecond science, honored with the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics, is transforming our understanding of how electrons move in atoms, molecules, and solids. An attosecond—equivalent to a ...

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DESY researchers at CFEL have developed a millimeter-sized high-power amplifier with an output power of more than one watt on silicon-based optical ... High-power amplifiers are critical components in modern optical systems. “In order to be able to use them more widely, such systems should be very small, analogous to microelectronics - ...

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