Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize and Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Award
From left to right: Prof. Gerard Meijer, Fritz Haber Institute, Berlin, Dr. Manfred Faubel, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Dr. Bernd Winter, Fritz Haber Institute, Berlin, Dr. Franziska Emmerling, Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing. © M. Setzpfandt / HZB
From left to right: Dr. Michael Krumrey, PTB, Dr. Dieter Skroblin, PTB, Dr. Franziska Emmerling, BAM. © M. Setzpfandt / HZB
This year, the Friends of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (Freundeskreis des HZB e. V.) awarded the Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize to Dr. Dieter Skroblin of the Technische Universität Berlin for his outstanding doctoral thesis. The European Innovation Award Synchrotron Radiation went to Dr. Manfred Faubel from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen and Dr. Bernd Winter from the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin. The award ceremony took place at this year's HZB user meeting.
The 2024 Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Prize was awarded to Dr. Manfred Faubel of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen and Dr. Bernd Winter of the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin. They received the prize for their groundbreaking development and application of liquid jet photoelectron spectroscopy (LJ-PES). The method is widely used to study surface phenomena, biochemical reactions and atmospheric chemistry. Prof. Gerard Meijer from the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin gave the laudatory speech at the award ceremony on December 11, 2024 in Berlin-Adlershof.
The Ernst-Eckhard-Koch Prize 2024 was awarded to Dr. Dieter Skroblin from the Technical University of Berlin. His dissertation “Application of X-ray Characterization Tools for ordered Nanostructures: Hybrid Detectors, Magnetic Sample Environment & Computational Simulations” was carried out at PTB and combines innovative X-ray scattering and spectrometry methods to study nanomaterials. Dr. Skroblin made significant progress in experimental setups and data interpretation, including the calibration of a hybrid pixel detector and the development of a device for aligning nanoparticles in a magnetic field. The award committee recognized the importance of his work for future research priorities at the planned synchrotron radiation source BESSY III.
Friends of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin e.V.
The "Friends of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin e. V." is dedicated to promoting science and research with synchrotron radiation, and in particular young scientists. It aims to be a link between the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the public, and to cultivate cooperation between the HZB, its friends and supporters, and other institutions in Germany and abroad. The association's main activities include the annual awarding of the Ernst Eckhard Koch Dissertation Prize and the Synchrotron Radiation Innovation P
- BESSY II: New sample environment allows glimpse into thermocatalytic processesA novel measurement cell allows, for the first time, soft and hard X-ray investigations under high pressures of up to 20 bar and temperatures of up to 400°C. This provides new insights into thermocatalytic processes, such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis for producing synthetic fuels. The development of the measurement cell is considered a significant achievement within the Care-O-Sene project.
- Magnetic imaging: Micro-flowers increase the local magnetic fieldMaterials with magnetic nanostructures have many potential applications such as in spintronics. To explore such materials, nanoscale magnetic-sensitive imaging techniques are very useful, but up to now only weak magnetic fields could be applied during the imaging process. Now an international collaboration led by Dr. Sergio Valencia, HZB, has developed an approach that overcomes this limitation. The team designed tiny magnetic flux concentrators (MFCs), into which the sample is placed. The geometry of the MFCs resembles a flower with a number of petals which focus the applied magnetic field into its center. This greatly expands the magnetic field range available during imaging, and so the range of magnetic systems that can be investigated. The micro-flowers, enhancing magnetic fields locally, can find application in different nanometric magnetic microscopy techniques.
- Disorder creates new properties in compound semiconductorsAn international research team has demonstrated that the intrinsic disorder of the compound semiconductor CuInSnS₄ can be exploited to influence its optical properties. While the atomic vibrations also sense the local disorder, their response is averaged over many different local environments and therefore appear isotropic, as expected for a cubic crystal. In contrast, the optical excitations, known as excitons, are much more sensitive to the local arrangement of atoms. Surprisingly, they show a direction-dependent optical response even though the average crystal structure is cubic. These findings shed new light on the relationship between disorder and material properties, opening up new options for targeted 'disorder engineering' in optoelectronic and photocatalytic devices.