Where does the periodic table of chemical elements end and which processes lead to the existence of heavy elements?

Fermium studied at GSI/FAIR — Researchers investigate nuclear properties of element 100 with laser light

13-Nov-2024 - An international research team reports on experiments performed at the GSI/FAIR accelerator facility and at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz to come closer to an answer. They gained insight into the structure of atomic nuclei of fermium (element 100) with different numbers of neutrons. Using ...

Light-driven molecular swing

Scientists have used ultrashort laser pulses to make the atoms of molecules vibrate and have gained a precise understanding of the dynamics of energy transfer

20-Oct-2022 - When light impinges on molecules, it is absorbed and re-emitted. Advances in ultrafast laser technology have steadily improved the level of detail in studies of such light-matter interactions. FRS, a laser spectroscopy method in which the electric field of laser pulses repeating millions of times ...

Pumping up the music of molecules

Significantly improving the "sense of smell" of molecular laser spectroscopy: Increases chances to reliably detect diseases

25-Aug-2022 - Sensitive animal noses can sniff out trace particles, such as volatile organic compounds, in the ambient air. Humans, on the other hand, are developing innovative technologies for this purpose, such as optical spectroscopy. This uses laser light to detect the molecular composition of gases. It ...

Ultrafast Electron Dynamics in Space and Time

"We believe that our findings represent a crucial breakthrough towards the goal of tracing electrons through chemical reactions in space and time"

22-Feb-2021 - In textbooks and explanatory videos, they are often depicted as colourful balloons or clouds: electron orbitals provide information on the whereabouts of electrons in molecules, a bit like fuzzy snapshots. In order to understand the exchange of electrons in chemical reactions, it is not only ...

Researchers observe ultrafast processes of single molecules in liquid helium for the first time

How a molecule moves in the protective environment of a quantum fluid

24-Mar-2020 - Markus Koch, head of the research group Femtosecond Dynamics at the Institute of Experimental Physics at TU Graz, and his team develop new methods for time-resolved femtosecond laser spectroscopy to investigate ultrafast processes in molecular systems. In 2018 the group demonstrated for the first ...

First field measurements of laughing gas isotopes

Greenhouse gas emissions from soil

09-Dec-2019 - Thanks to a newly developed laser spectrometer, Empa researchers can for the first time show which processes in grassland lead to nitrous oxide emissions. The aim is to reduce emissions of this potent greenhouse gas by gaining a better understanding of the processes taking place in the soil. ...

New Measurement Device: Carbon Dioxide As Geothermometer

Researchers quantify rare CO2 variants using laser spectroscopy

22-May-2019 - For the first time it is possible to measure, simultaneously and with extreme precision, four rare molecular variants of carbon dioxide (CO2) using a novel laser instrument. It is thus able to measure the temperature during the formation of CO2-binding carbonates and carbonaceous fossils ...

Examining puzzling sizes of extremely light calcium isotopes

13-Feb-2019 - Michigan State University researchers have measured for the first time the nuclei of three proton-rich calcium isotopes. One of the most fundamental properties of the nucleus is its size. The nuclear radius generally increases with the number of proton and neutron constituents. However, when ...

The world's shortest laser pulse

Observe the movement of electrons during chemical reactions in slow motion

02-Nov-2017 - ETH researchers succeeded in shortening the pulse duration of an X‑ray laser to only 43 attoseconds. With a time resolution in the range of a few quintillionths of a second, they are now able for the first time to observe the movement of electrons during chemical reactions in slow motion. In ...

Frozen highly-charged ions for highest precision spectroscopy

16-Mar-2015 - A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt in Braunschweig and the University of Aarhus in Denmark demonstrated for the first time Coulomb crystallization of highly-charged ions (HCIs). Inside a cryogenic ...