Latest-News – Lightsources.org

SLAC’s X-ray laser sets a record for shortest high-energy pulses ever generated by an XFEL

2026/10/212026/10/22

Researchers are already using these high-energy X-ray pulses, which last only billionths of a billionth of a second, to probe electronic motion deep within atoms and dense plasmas.

Key takeaways:

Researchers developed a method to indirectly measure the duration of X-ray pulses created by SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source.
The pulses lasted only 100 to 400 attoseconds, making them the shortest high-energy X-ray pulses ever recorded at an X-ray free-electron laser.
The pulses can be used by scientists to capture the real-time motion of electrons in dense systems like plasmas and the inner orbitals of atoms.

Researchers at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have measured the shortest high-energy X-ray pulses ever recorded at an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL). The pulses had photon energies of about 9 kiloelectronvolts (keV) and clocked in at durations of 100 to 400 attoseconds – mere billionths of a billionth of a second. The results were published in Nature Photonics.

These high-energy, or “hard,” attosecond X-ray pulses are invaluable for researchers studying the universe at its smallest, fastest scales. “The pulses are both energetic enough to look deep into atomic systems and fast enough to record electronic motion frozen in time,” said Agostino Marinelli, a study author and professor of photon science, particle physics and astrophysics at SLAC.

The challenge, Marinelli explained, wasn’t creating these ultrashort pulses, but rather proving that it had been done. “Over the course of several years, we’ve learned how to create these high-energy attosecond pulses, but measuring pulses this short is really, really difficult. This was the first diagnostic that proves the pulses are indeed only a few hundred attoseconds long.”

From 44 Hours to 10: Automation Accelerates Nanoscale X-ray Analysis

2026/10/132026/10/14

Student intern helps develop automated microscope workflow to tackle real-world pollution challenges

Finding particles of interest in an air pollution particulate matter sample can be harder than finding a needle in a haystack. It’s a time-consuming process that requires scientists to manually locate and scan thousands of microscopic particles across a large sample area, often taking several days. But this work is essential; fine particulate matter found in air pollution has been linked to an estimated 7 million premature deaths worldwide each year. Understanding these particles at the nanoscale is essential to learning more about the role that they play in human health.

To help make this important research move more quickly and efficiently, a research team led by scientists at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, has developed a tool called X-AutoMap. This software enables an X-ray microscope to automatically locate and analyze particles of interest, significantly accelerating the process while improving precision. X-AutoMap’s capabilities help researchers gain a better understanding of how different elements are distributed within individual particles at the nanoscale, offering new insights into how air pollution affects an environment and the people living in it.

Read more on the BNL website

Image: Carlos DeLeon (front), a student assistant at the National Synchrotron Light Source II, investigates areas of interest in a particulate matter sample at the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe beamline with beamline scientist Ajith Pattammattel.

Credit: Timothy Kuhn/Brookhaven National Laboratory

New views of complex biological tissue with fourth generation light

2026/10/092026/10/22

A group of Danish researchers have demonstrated three-dimensional sub-micrometre imaging of a whole, multi-millimetre sized, mantis shrimp eye. The eye was chosen to show the imaging opportunities of highly complex biological tissue at a fourth generation synchrotron.

The mantis shrimp is most well-known for punching prey using their club. They also have one of the most advanced eyes of all creatures in nature. Where humans have three channels for colour, red, green and blue, the mantis shrimp has sixteen. Apart from the usual colours of visual light, the shrimp can see both ultraviolet and polarised light as well. However, the mantis shrimp eye is still quite poorly understood by science. To study this type of tissue, fourth generation synchrotrons are very useful tools with enhanced contrast mechanisms and three-dimensional imaging capabilities.

For imaging the mantis shrimp eye and other biological tissue, a goal is to achieve a wide field of view and image the entire structure while maintaining high resolution in three dimensions. This way, it will be possible to “zoom” in on the image, and the microscopic structures can be understood within the context of the larger tissue.

“The most important result of our study was that we were able to image the entire eye in three dimensions. This allowed us to quantify specific structures within the eye, which paves the way for future simulation and modelling of the optical properties of these fascinating eyes,” say the researchers.

The imaging method opens the important possibility of gathering quantitative data and statistics that would not be possible in two dimensions. This allowed for studying the details of the muscles that move the eye and the photo filters, a pigment that is found before each unit of the compound like eye.

Ingenious “molecular movie” reveals how penicillin works

2026/10/092026/10/14

An international team of scientists has created a molecular movie of an enzyme building a key structure found in penicillin antibiotics, capturing fleeting chemical reactions that have never been seen before in such detail.

Using powerful X-rays, researchers from the University of Oxford in collaboration with partners from the XFEL Hub at Diamond Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, PAL-XFEL and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, captured the enzyme in action, revealing the unexpected process of how nature builds its antibiotic structure.

By taking a series of ultrafast X-ray snapshots, the researchers were able to piece together a molecular movie showing the previously unseen rapid chemical stages in the formation of β-lactam antibiotics like penicillin.

The study, published in Nature Catalysis, focuses on isopenicillin N synthase (IPNS), an enzyme responsible for a crucial step in the biosynthesis of penicillin antibiotics.

The work is the result of more than a decade of international collaboration and reveals unexpected aspects of the chemistry that could help inform the development of new antibiotics and other therapeutics.

Read more on the Diamond and SLAC websites

Image: Structure of the human enzyme AspH. The enlarged view shows the enzyme’s iron-containing active site (orange sphere) bound to its protein substrate. Using time resolved X-ray crystallography, the researchers observed how AspH activates oxygen and hydroxylates proteins, providing new insight into a family of enzymes involved in oxygen sensing, development and cancer.

Credit: Patrick Rabe/University of Oxford and Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Malaria: a new target identified for blocking liver infection using antibodies

2026/10/072026/10/22

Malaria parasites must first infect the liver before they can cause disease. Scientists from the Laboratory of Medical Biochemistry (University of Antwerp) and the Centre d’immunologie et des maladies infectieuses (Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS) combined structural modelling, electron microscopy, small-angle X-ray scattering at the SOLEIL beamline and antibody neutralization assays to investigate two key Plasmodium sporozoite proteins, P36 and P52.

Their results suggest that P36 and P52 form a complex that can be targeted by neutralizing antibodies, preventing infection of liver cells. These proteins could therefore represent promising targets for new antimalarial strategies.

Malaria is caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium, which are transmitted through the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes that inject parasite stages known as sporozoites (SPZs) into the host skin. SPZs migrate to and infect the host liver for an initial round of multiplication. SPZs and liver stages have long been considered as ideal targets for malaria vaccines as targeting these stages can prevent disease onset.

During the parasite’s life cycle a multitude of stage-specific surface proteins are involved in a variety of important processes. The main SPZ surface protein, the circumsporozoite protein (CSP), is the target of currently approved malaria vaccines and preventive antibody therapies. Studies in mouse malaria models have shown that antibodies against CSP protect mainly by stopping the parasite in the skin. However, some of the most effective antibodies also provide protection against the parasite in the bloodstream and liver. Other SPZ proteins involved at different steps of the infection process may thus represent additional targets for protection.

Read more on the SOLEIL website

Image: Diagram showing the two possible binding sites for antibodies on the heterodimer, depending on the position of the tag, and the resulting inhibitory—or non-inhibitory—effect of these antibodies on the invasion of liver cells.

New insights into lung health risk for female farmers

2026/10/072026/10/21

Exposure to a mix of common airborne contaminants could lead to lung effects in women who work on farms

Exposure to a mix of common airborne agricultural contaminants could lead to lung effects in females, a new University of Saskatchewan (USask) study has uncovered.

Farmers are exposed daily to a variety of potential contaminants such as endotoxins (substances associated with certain bacteria) in dust, which are well-known to trigger lung inflammation and asthma. However, how endotoxins specifically impact women’s health is not well understood, particularly when there is also exposure to a herbicide called glyphosate, widely used in agricultural work.

Now, USask researchers have detected lung effects in female mice models just five days after a combined exposure, simulating the same quantity of endotoxins and herbicide farmers could breathe over a work week.

The team was able to take detailed images of the affected lungs thanks to the powerful X-rays of the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at USask.

These images showed that fluid had built up in the lungs during this short exposure period. The alveoli – the small air sacks that play a crucial role in breathing – also became thicker, overall showing more impact than that found in mice dosed only with a single contaminant.

These results were recently published in Scientific Reports as one of the first studies focusing on agricultural airborne exposure in female mice.

“Five days is a very short time but still we were able to pick up really fine nuances. The combination of endotoxins and glyphosate was making the lungs as thick, if not more,” said Gurpreet Aulakh, Fedoruk Chair in Imaging Science and associate professor in the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at USask.

Read more on the CLS website

New scientific directors at European XFEL

2026/10/062026/10/08

European XFEL Council appoints Elke Plönjes-Palm and Jakub Szlachetko

German physicist Dr. Elke Plönjes-Palm and Polish physicist Prof. Jakub Szlachetko will become scientific directors at European XFEL on 1 January 2027. Following a decision by the European XFEL Council, the research organization’s highest governing body, Plönjes-Palm will head Development and Instrumentation, Szlachetko will take responsibility for Operations and Data.

Elke Plönjes-Palm has held senior positions in photon science at the research centre DESY in Hamburg. In 2002, she joined the world’s first short-wavelength free-electron laser, FLASH at DESY, as a senior scientist. She is currently group leader of Beamlines and Optics at FLASH. In this capacity she has been responsible for the photon beamline development for FLASH2 and the FLASH2020+ upgrade project. Her particular interests are beamline characterisation and automation. Prior to joining DESY, she spent six years as a visiting scientist at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, working on the generation and spectroscopy of highly non-equilibrium plasmas and their applications. Beyond her work at FLASH, Plönjes-Palm has actively represented FLASH in international collaborations such as the League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources (LEAPS) and FELs of Europe, at FELs of Europe currently also as the chairperson. For many years, she has been scientific coordinator and principal investigator in large collaborative European and Helmholtz initiatives.

Jakub Szlachetko is an experienced scientific executive and leader of research infrastructures with more than 20 years of international experience in photon science, accelerator-based facilities, and advanced X-ray technologies. He currently serves as director of the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he leads a multidisciplinary organization and holds overall responsibility for scientific programmes, facility operations, technical infrastructure, IT and data-related activities, and strategic development. Before becoming director, he served as head of the Applied Spectroscopy Division at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His international scientific career includes positions at the Swiss Light Source and SwissFEL at Paul Scherrer Institute and at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility ESRF. Szlachetko has also held senior roles at European research organizations and infrastructures, including Chair and Vice Chair of LEAPS, representing Europe’s synchrotron and free-electron-laser facilities, and as a Polish Delegate to the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).

European XFEL builds new scientific instrument

2026/09/292026/10/02

European XFEL has laid the groundwork for its eighth scientific instrument. During the recent Long Installation and Maintenance Period, around 500 metres of steel vacuum tubes were installed in one of the facility’s underground tunnels. These tubes terminate at the new High Energy X-ray Scattering (HXS) instrument.

Once operational, the new instrument will be the third to feed off of the SASE2 undulators, one of European XFEL’s three light sources. A silicon mirror, polished with extreme precision, is scheduled to be installed early next year. It will shift the X-ray beam between the existing Materials Imaging and Dynamics (MID) instrument and the new instrument at a higher rate than existing beam-sharing installations at European XFEL, allowing experiments to be conducted in parallel. “This will further optimize the use of our hard X-ray pulses,” says Harald Sinn, Head of the Instrumentation department at European XFEL. “HXS will also complement existing instruments and offer new opportunities for research.”

Scientific experiments at the new instrument will be able to take advantage of the shortest wavelenghts provided by the SASE2 undulators. This particularly energetic X-ray light is desirable for example for experiments under extreme conditions in a diamond anvil cell, which exerts immense pressure on a sample. These are currently conducted at the HED (High Energy Density) instrument, where they compete with other types of experiments. HXS will offer further opportunities to develop the experimental setup for experiments under extreme pressures, which was realised in collaboration with DESY and HZDR (Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf). This includes, for example, materials research or the simulation of conditions such as those found inside planets. Past research includes work on the formation of diamond rain on ice giants such as Neptune and Uranus.

Read more on the European XFEL website

Image: View from the experiment hall into the tunnel, taken through a hole that was drilled through the one-metre-thick shielding wall. Since the picture was taken, beam transport pipes have been installed to carry X-ray pulses along the tunnel, through the hole, and into the newly constructed experiment station.

Credit: European XFEL

Spotlight on science communication at the Bay Area Light Sources Joint Users’ Meeting

2026/09/242026/10/01

Last week, Lightsources.org had an inspiring few days interacting with delegates at the Bay Area Light Sources Joint Users’ Meeting at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Our Science Communication Workshop and Facility Upgrade Panel Discussion were attended by delegates looking to improve their communication skills when talking about their work to non specialists and those keen to be part of the discussion on effective communication with users when facilities embark on major upgrade projects.

As science communicators based at light source facilities around the world, it was a privilege to be able to share our knowledge with those passionate about bringing their work to general audiences.

As our facilities upgrade to improve the capabilities we offer to users, it is important to provide two way communication opportunities. By focusing on the strategies we employ to ensure these complex projects build on the strong links light sources have with their user communities, we put those bringing their science to us at the heart of everything we do. It was also great to run our Science Communication Poster Award during the meeting so we could highlight some wonderful work in the area of peer to peer communication. Congratulations to our winners Bruno Nunez Perez, University of Saskatchewan (centre), Seonju You, Pohang Accelerator Lab, (right) and Alexander Lemmens, PULSE (left). Huge thanks and congratulations to the event organisers. You did a fantastic job looking after us!

Ana Belén Martínez, Communications and Outreach Manager at ALBA Synchrotron and Chair of Lightsources.org, comments “Lightsources.org brings together science communicators from facilities around the world. Our main goal is to support the community with our website and through in person activities such as the science communication workshop and upgrade panel discussion we delivered during the Users’ Meeting. Sharing our insights and experiences on how to make scientific and technical topics accessible and memorable to non-specialists is very rewarding and we were inspired by the discussions we had with participants during our practical workshop.

With so many facilities currently on an upgrade journey, it was timely to focus on the importance of transparency in user communication in the run up, during, and post facility upgrade, and we appreciated having the opportunity to gain perspectives from users during our panel discussion. We are extremely grateful to colleagues form SLAC and the ALS for giving Lightsources.org these opportunities and for looking after us so well during the meeting.”

Inside spacecraft heat shields during extreme heat conditions

2026/09/242026/10/08

Through a decade-long partnership between the ALS and NASA, researchers are studying how heat shield materials called superlight ablators degrade, informing NASA spacecraft design.
Research at the ALS offered a new detailed picture of this hidden process, one that has meaningfully improved how engineers model and design heat shields for space missions such as the recent Artemis missions.
By combining X-ray scans with AI-trained models, the team successfully captured the microscopic breakdown of these materials in real time.

When a spacecraft reenters Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic velocities, its protective heat shield faces the most extreme conditions, including temperatures beyond 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. To survive, the shield relies on specialized materials that absorb the heat as it degrades away in a controlled process called ablation, sacrificing the outer layers of the heat shield to protect the vehicle and crew within.

Designing those materials requires understanding exactly how they degrade — but watching that process at the microscopic level, in enough detail to capture necessary information on the materials, has been a challenge, forcing engineers to rely on pre- and post-test observations to develop computational models.

At the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), researchers found a way to watch ablation in real time.

Using a sample environment on an X-ray tomography instrument that independently controls temperature, pressure, and gas mixture, recreating realistic, evolving reentry conditions. Findings from a recent study carried out in part at the ALS offer detailed, time-lapse, 3D images of this process, improving how engineers model and design thermal protection systems for space missions, including NASA’s recent Artemis missions.

“Nearly every major NASA ablative heat shield material has been studied with this technique at the Advanced Light Source, including those relevant to the Artemis and Mars entry missions.” – Vishnu Oruganti, user of the ALS.

“Directly observing how heat shield materials degrade during heating with this technique has been transformative for atmospheric entry research since it gives us unique insights and helps us visualize the internal structural changes that drive ablation as it occurs,” said Vishnu Oruganti, who was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign at the time of the study and is now a researcher at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Nearly every major NASA ablative heat shield material has been studied with this technique at the Advanced Light Source, including those relevant to the Artemis and Mars entry missions.”

Read more on the LBL website

Image: A heat shield removed from NASA’s Orion spacecraft and inspected following the Artemis I test flight

Credit: NASA

New iron oxyhydroxides could lock water deep inside Earth

2026/09/212026/09/21

Experiments reveal exceptionally water-rich solids stable under pressure–temperature conditions that overlap the deep-mantle geotherm. The experiments took place on three different beamlines at the ESRF. The results are out in Nature Geoscience.

Scientists have synthesized two previously unknown iron oxyhydroxides that remain stable at the immense pressures and temperatures of Earth’s deep mantle. The phases are likely the first experimentally demonstrated water-bearing solids synthesized and stable under conditions overlapping a substantial portion of the mantle geotherm—providing a long-sought mineralogical host for water near the base of the mantle.

The study identifies the hexagonal compounds Fe₅O₁₂Hₓ (x ≥ 9) and Fe₇O₁₂Hₓ (x ≥ 3). They formed in laser-heated diamond anvil cells between 78 and 198 gigapascals and at temperatures of 2,400–2,800 kelvin. These conditions extend across much of the deep lower-mantle pressure range and overlap the temperatures expected along the mantle geotherm.

Water profoundly affects mantle melting, deformation and chemical transport, yet the major minerals of the lower mantle can store only very small amounts of hydrogen. Previously proposed hydrous phases either require unusually cold subducting slabs, restricted chemical compositions or break down at high mantle temperatures. The new iron oxyhydroxides therefore fill an important gap: they are dense, highly hydrated solids that can coexist with the principal minerals of the lower mantle.

Read more on the ESRF website

World’s first open-access battery imaging library launches

2026/09/182026/09/21

The new resource gives the global scientific community free access to advanced battery imaging data, helping to support further research into battery materials, performance and the development of next-generation technologies, while providing valuable datasets for the development of AI and new approaches to image analysis.

Scientists from Diamond Light Source and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source have contributed to the development of the world’s first open-access battery imaging library. The library was created through an international collaboration led by Dr Antony Vamvakeros, Royal Society Industry Fellow at Imperial College London and Research and Development Lead at Finden Ltd, which is co-located with both facilities on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.

The Battery Imaging Library (BIL) contains over 4.5 terabytes of experimental data acquired at various synchrotrons and national laboratories. The initiative brought together 48 scientists from 18 institutions around the world to acquire experimental battery data using 13 distinct imaging modalities at different length scales.

Using Diamond’s I12-JEEP, the UK’s flagship high-energy X-ray imaging and diffraction beamline, the team was able to acquire high resolution static and dynamic X-ray micro-CT measurements. The team scanned commercial cylindrical Li ion, LiFeS2 and alkaline batteries to reveal their internal structures. Professor Genoveva Burca, Principal Beamline Scientist at I12, said: “The I12-JEEP beamline offers unique capabilities for probing and investigating the internal morphological structure of batteries. We are delighted that these dynamic X-ray micro CT datasets are now freely available through the Battery Imaging Library so that scientists worldwide can use them to develop safer and more efficient energy storage devices.”

The IMAT neutron imaging beamline at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source was used to collect neutron-CT data, which is particularly valuable as it is rarely available to the battery community. It provides complementary contrast to X-rays for light components in Li-ion batteries, enabling the visualisation of Li-based electrolytes and the location of the Li species in general within the cell. By including data from multiple techniques, the library enables scientists to get the full picture required for their analysis.

Read more on the Diamond website

Quality over energy in X-ray production

2026/09/182026/10/13

High-quality electron beams pave the way for more compact and affordable X-ray free-electron lasers.

Scientists at the X-ray free electron laser SwissFEL have demonstrated that exceptional electron beam quality can offset the need for extreme accelerator energy at these advanced light sources. High-performance X-ray free-electron lasers act like ultra-fast cameras, capturing chemical reactions and mapping matter at the atomic scale. Traditionally, generating the shortest-wavelengths X-ray pulses required driving particle accelerators to massive energy levels. Instead of relying purely on brute force, researchers managed to achieve high-power, atomic-scale X-ray pulses by dramatically improving the brilliance of the electron beam, directly compensating for lower machine energy. This made it possible to operate the free-electron laser in a regime with very small electron oscillations in the undulator – a regime long thought to be impractical for high-power hard X-ray generation. The approach – already proven in user experiments – shows that optimizing beam quality can reduce energy demands, paving the way for smaller and more affordable X-ray free-electron laser facilities worldwide.

Read more on the PSI website

Image: The undulator beamline at SwissFEL, where technological developments have enabled scientists to generate X-ray pulses with wavelengths below one Angstrom using much lower machine energies than are typically required.

Scaling up high-resolution X-ray nanoimaging

2026/09/172026/10/01

Seeing the intricate structures inside biological tissue in three dimensions is essential for understanding how cells are organized and how they function. But looking at those structures at the nanoscale is challenging. Conventional microscopy methods can provide high-resolution images, yet they often require samples to be cut into thin sections. X-ray imaging offers a different approach: It can penetrate relatively large samples and produce three-dimensional views without physically slicing those samples apart. At synchrotron facilities, highly focused and coherent X-ray beams can push this technique into the nanoscale.

One such technique is X-ray nano-holotomography, a form of three-dimensional phase-contrast imaging. Rather than simply measuring how much X-ray radiation passes through a sample, the technique also detects subtle phase shifts in the X-rays caused by the material. The technique is full-field, capturing the entire field of view in a single measurement rather than through sequential scanning, which makes it significantly faster than scanning-based methods. Images are collected at multiple distances from the sample, allowing researchers to recover information about the phase of the X-ray wave and reconstruct the sample’s three-dimensional refractive index. Hard X-rays, with their ability to penetrate materials and biological tissue, make the technique particularly useful for nondestructive nanoscale imaging. Modern synchrotron beamlines can achieve spatial resolutions below 50 nanometers, with data acquisition times of less than one hour.

However, achieving high resolution also makes the imaging process more sensitive to imperfections. The X-ray beam used for nano-holotomography is not perfectly uniform. Small errors in the position of the sample can also affect the measurements. These effects become particularly important when imaging features only tens of nanometers across. Traditionally, researchers address these problems in separate stages: First align the images, then retrieve the phase information, and finally reconstruct the three-dimensional object. While this approach works well for many experiments, errors introduced during one stage can carry into the next.

Read more on the APS website

Image: A new joint nano-holotomography reconstruction technique, based on the bilinear Hessian method and multi-node, multi-GPU acceleration, enables processing of large 3D brain volumes (one slice is shown) and reveals synapses (orange), mitochondria (cyan), endoplasmic reticulum (pink), and chromatin (green) in a neuronal nucleus.

Coherent X-ray imaging at ALBA II: build it with us!

2026/09/162026/10/01

ALBA is recruiting scientists to build and shape its new coherent X-ray imaging programme, starting with CoDI and CORUS beamlines.

As part of the ALBA II upgrade, ALBA is establishing a new coherent X-ray imaging programme, the cornerstone of our imaging-across-length-scales program; and we are looking for scientists who want to build and shape it from the ground up!

We are building the program as a team effort. Scientists joining now will take ownership of major parts of the program, shaping instruments and methods, leading their own research directions, and contributing to define how coherent imaging is done at ALBA, and how it is integrated with the other parts of ALBA’s user program.

Our aim is not simply to build new beamlines, but to create the scientific and technical capabilities around them: develop new imaging methods, solve challenging experimental problems, build the computational tools needed to turn data into science, and establish research programs that exploit what the new source and the two new instruments make possible:

CoDI will provide multimodal and operando coherent diffraction imaging in transmission and Bragg geometries, enabling nanoscale studies of structure, chemistry and dynamics in functional, environmental and engineering materials.
CORUS will provide high-resolution 3D X-ray nanoimaging of biological cells and tissues, combining structural and chemical information under cryogenic and room-temperature conditions.

Read more on the ALBA website

Flexible composite with switchable magnetic and optical properties

2026/09/102026/09/21

A team of researchers from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN), Jagiellonian University, and AGH University of Kraków has developed a switchable composite material that combines the remarkable properties of molecular magnets with the mechanical robustness and flexibility of polymer fibers. The paper was published in the journal Nanoscale.

A key component of the composite is the coordination chain {NH₄[Ni(cyclam)][Fe(CN)₆]·5H₂O}ₙ, which exhibits reversible intermetallic charge transfer between iron and nickel centers. Changes in temperature, humidity, or pressure can induce a transition between different states of the material, accompanied by a pronounced and reversible change in color as well as changes in its magnetic properties. This enables the material to function simultaneously as an active magnetic component and as a visual indicator of the transition taking place within the material.

An important challenge in the practical application of such materials is their physical form. The crystalline coordination compound is brittle and has limited stability when exposed to polar liquids, particularly water, which can lead to its degradation and loss of its desired properties. To address this issue, the researchers developed a composite in which the molecular magnetic chain was incorporated into polymer fibers produced by electrospinning. Two polymer matrices were used: poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and a poly(2-vinylpyridine-co-styrene) copolymer (P2VP-PS). This approach preserved the switchable properties of the coordination compound while converting it into a flexible fibrous mat with improved mechanical properties. In particular, the use of hydrophobic PCL proved highly beneficial, providing protection against the adverse effects of water.

Characterization of the resulting materials required several complementary experimental techniques, with X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) playing a particularly important role. This technique makes it possible to investigate the local atomic environment of selected elements and their electronic states. XAS measurements were performed at the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Centre in Kraków, on the ASTRA beamline, by recording spectra around the K-absorption edges of iron and nickel. These measurements provided important complementary information to the magnetic and spectroscopic studies, making it possible to correlate the observed changes in the material’s properties with changes in its electronic structure.

Read more on the SOLARIS website

Image: Temperature-dependent XAS spectra recorded at the Fe and Ni K-edges for the coordination polymer {NH₄[Ni(cyclam)][Fe(CN)6]·5H₂O}_n in the low-temperature (LT, 260 K) and high-temperature (HT, 330 K) states. Changes in the shape and position of the absorption edges indicate a change in the electronic configuration of the Fe and Ni centers induced by temperature change. The middle panel shows the structure of the coordination polymer {NH₄[Ni(cyclam)][Fe(CN)₆]·5H₂O}n, together with a schematic representation of electron transfer between the metal centers. The bottom panel presents the electronic configuration of the coordination polymer {NH₄[Ni(cyclam)][Fe(CN)₆]·5H₂O}ₙ in the LT and HT states. Photographs of the samples clearly show the change in color occurring between the low-temperature (LT) and high-temperature (HT) states.