Gold membrane coaxes secrets out of surfaces

Thousand-fold signal amplification

26-Jun-2024 - Using a special wafer-thin gold membrane, ETH researchers have made it significantly easier to study surfaces. The membrane makes it possible to measure properties of surfaces that are inaccessible to conventional methods. “Surfaces were invented by the devil” - this quote is attributed to the ...

New door opened to understanding the catalysis of ammonia production

Research team investigates the reaction mechanism for catalytic ammonia production at PETRA III

26-Jan-2024 - A research team from Stockholm University, in collaboration with DESY and the Montanuniversität Leoben in Austria, has succeeded for the first time in investigating the surface of iron and ruthenium catalysts in the formation of ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen; the results have been published ...

‘Hot’ new form of microscopy examines materials using evanescent waves

“This microscope technology is completely new, so we’re still learning specifically how and where it can be applied”

14-Nov-2023 - Conventional microscopes irradiate a sample, usually with light or electrons. Any reflected or scattered radiation can be used to build a detailed image and obtain characteristic information about a material’s surface. This is called an active measurement, but it isn’t the only technique that can ...

Advances in spectroscopy

New way to measure properties of a material’s surface layer

15-Nov-2022 - Physicists at The University of Texas at Arlington have developed a new technique that can measure the properties of the topmost atomic layer of materials without including information from the underlying layers. Researchers from the Positron Lab in the UTA Department of Physics utilized a ...

Surface chemistry reveals corrosive secrets

Precise Measurements are the Molecular Lens to Seeing Chemistry

18-Oct-2021 - One can easily see with the naked eye that leaving an old nail out in the rain causes rust. What does require the keen eyes and sensitive nose of microscopy and spectroscopy is observing how iron corrodes and forms new minerals, especially in water with a pinch of sodium and calcium. Thanks to a ...

Making the invisible visible

New method for studying atomic structures in material surfaces

21-May-2021 - Researchers from Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the University of California Berkeley and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris use intense laser light in the extreme ultraviolet spectrum to generate a non-linear optical process on a laboratory scale – a process which until now has only been ...

How to Gently Caress Atoms: A single oxygen atom is used as a highly sensitive sensor

How can surfaces be studied as gently as possible on an atomic scale?

10-Jun-2020 - Oxygen is highly reactive. It accumulates on many surfaces and determines their chemical behavior. At the Vienna University of Technology, scientists study the interaction between oxygen and metal oxide surfaces, which play an important role in many technical applications - from chemical sensors ...

How to remove dirt easily

When and how self-cleaning of superhydrophobic surfaces works

03-Apr-2020 - Dirt is not always dirt. Some dirt, such as dust, adheres only slightly to surfaces. But there is also dirt, such as dried paint, which sticks strongly. How can the adhesive properties of a surface be adjusted so that different types of dirt do not stick to it? This knowledge is essential to ...

The origins of roughness

Origins of surface texture investigated

19-Feb-2020 - Most natural and artificial surfaces are rough: metals and even glasses that appear smooth to the naked eye can look like jagged mountain ranges under the microscope. There is currently no uniform theory about the origin of this roughness despite it being observed on all scales, from the atomic ...

The limits of friction

03-Apr-2018 - Friction is created when two surfaces slide one on top of the other. Since this consumes additional energy, this so-called sliding friction is considered an irksome yet inevitable aspect of dynamic processes. However, to set a stationary object in motion, its static friction must be overcome ...