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In: Careers, International, Students

At HZB about 150 young scientists are working on their doctoral dissertation. 81 come from abroad to Berlin to do their PhD in the HZB labs in Wannsee or Adlershof. The PhD students at HZB have organized themselves: twice a month, they invite to an informal get-together, they plan workshops and an annual PhD retreat in a country hotel in Brandenburg. This is actively supported by the management. I recently asked Daniel Meza, one of eight current doctoral student representatives about their activities. Daniel, why do you work as a representative in the PhD students organization ? Daniel: Maybe it’s a bit romantic, but forRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, International, Lightsources, Summerstudents

Thermoplastic ionomer materials such as Nafion do have many talents: they can be used as membranes for proton exchange in fuel cells, but they have also attracted attention as shape memory materials: Via external stimuli such as heat or an electric field, it is possible to trigger a change in shapes. Applications in textiles, biomedicine, aerospace, sensors and coatings are possible. Nafion: a membrane with shape memory Nafion is one of those materials: as a membrane in a fuel cell, its high proton conductivity allows a fast pass of hydrogen ions (protons). And its internal shape plays a crucial role. Now a team from Brazil hasRead More →

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In: Lightsources

by Jonas Böhm The last finishing touches are being made to the cryogenic undulator CPMU-17 before it will be installed in the BESSY II storage ring next week. A good moment to look back. The long way of undulators: 70 years old and still up-to-date Home of the first undulator was Stanford. Its linear accelerator (you can see its tunnel in the image) is claimed to be “the world’s most straight object”. In 1952, the Austrian scientist Hans Motz and his team conducted the first experiment, in which a 100-Mev electron beam from the Stanford linear accelerator passed through the undulator. Light radiated by the beam wasRead More →

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by Katharina Kolatzki With the new cryogenic undulator CPMU-17 being installed into the BESSY II storage ring, I thought it a good moment to get everyone who may not be that familiar with this essential part of the synchrotron up to speed. What is an Undulator? By now, you might have noticed that undulators are pretty cool things (even the room temperature devices) that are an essential part of synchrotron sources such as BESSY II. In order to understand a little bit more about them, here is a brief introduction to undulators. Synchrotron sources provide especially brilliant light that can be used to examine aRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Students, Summerstudents

Quantum Mechanics Can Be Useful Too! Nowadays, it seems that quantum mechanics is seen more as “spooky” than practical. Thus, I am here to “de-mystify” some of the science behind a fascinating process that’s yet to be simulated properly. My research group investigates the theory behind what is called Interatomic Coulomb Electron Capture (ICEC). This fascinating universal quantum process is yet to be fully understood, and we are here to change that. Someday, this could be an incredibly useful tool to revolutionize atomic and quantum chemical energy transfers. ICEC In A Nutshell The general process includes 3 main steps that occur simultaneously. We’ve got two atoms, atom A andRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Summerstudents

Far-sighted hydrogen economy During one of the winter nights, while talking in the interior of Granite House, “well lighted with candles, well warmed with coal, after a good dinner”, the settlers of Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island were discussing about the fact that the coal will be entirely consumed. After a roughly estimation, Cyrus Harding, an engineer of great capabilities, concluded that it would happen “for at least two hundred and fifty or three hundred years.” To everyone’s surprise, when he was asked what they will burn instead of coal, he said: “Water”. “Water” cried Pencroft, “water as a fuel for steamers and engines! water toRead More →

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In: Summerstudents

  I am living in a room at Rudow, I have never liked to use the public transport even if it is as organized as I have found it is in Berlin. In my first week in Germany I realized that most of the streets have a good bycicle road. That’s really nice!!. I bougth  roller skates and every day I get to Adlershof on those. It cought my attention that at 3/4 of my way to the institute, I had  to cross a diagonal “deffect” on the floor. I was wondering why if the street is straight it is divided by that section. IRead More →

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In: Energymaterials, Students, Summerstudents

In chemistry, working up a synthesis route or a method which leads to the favored product is a challenging, lengthy procedure. Most of the time it is based on the concept “trial and error” and a lot is discovered by coincidence. For instance, the today’s industrial processes hydroformylation and the Czochralski process have their roots in accidental discoveries and very precise observation. Before a synthesis method becomes a large industrial process the synthesis must be optimized in a much smaller scale. That happens in the laboratory and is an odyssey that includes varying different parameters. Chemists refer to their work in the laboratory as “cooking”.Read More →

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In: Energymaterials, Summerstudents

Introduction I hope everyone knows the terms from the title of the post. I thought quite a lot whether it was worth writing them or not. But nevertheless I will explain the meaning of terms. Cryogenic temperatures should be called temperatures below 120 K. Cryogenic devices are those whose actions are based on the use of superconductivity phenomena at very low changes. Further SRF – Superconduction Radio Frequency. Theory In the superconducting photoinjector of bERLinPro the photocathode (electron source) is held at 80 K. During operation the photocathode suffers from heat load due to RF- and laser power. A study was made of heat transportRead More →

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In: Summerstudents

The people that work here come from all over the world to achieve one goal: create a better world. HZB institute helps to reach this aim and its beauty is that it shares only a location with Germany, yet here foreign habits, cultures, and languages meet. These differences define each person and distinguish them from each other. But what is a tradition? What is a habit? A habit is what determines your lifestyle, what you do instinctively and unconsciously. According to Albert Camus, a French philosopher and writer who lived in the first half of the 20th century, human beings live a life that isRead More →