A group of researchers from France has been able to create and guide skyrmions in magnetic tracks. These nanoscale magnetic textures are promising information carriers with great potential in future data storage and processing devices. Experiments at the CIRCE-PEEM beamline of the ALBA Synchrotron enabled to image how skyrmions move along tracks written with helium ions.
For the first time, it has been demonstrated that oxygen functionalities (epoxy, carbonyl, and lactone) on the carbon electrode surface do not affect the kinetics of one-electron oxygen reduction in aprotic media, but enhance both the rate of electrochemical lithium peroxide (Li2O2) formation and carbon degradation in Li+-containing electrolytes. The research has included analysis using synchrotron light at Elettra and ALBA facilities.
A new study fruit of a collaboration between Spanish research institutions shows that cylindrical nanowires have at the center a magnetization aligned with the axis of the wire and at the surface a magnetization that describes helical lines as the barber poles. The helicity provides chirality to the magnetic configuration, and they found out that two adjacent magnetic domains having opposite chirality are more difficult to move that two adjacent domains with the same chirality. This result evidences the role of the chirality on the dynamics of the domain walls that might be used as a practical variable for magnetic data storage.
An international research team has demonstrated the oxidation effect of HOPG at room temperature by the deposition of an ultra-thin layer of cobalt monoxide (CoO). The formation of carbon defects reveals a weakening of the C-C sigma bonds, facilitating the carbon gasification reaction catalyzed by CoO at lower temperatures than using typical metallic nanoparticles. This fact opens the door to a more comprehensible and efficient graphite and graphene nanopatterning for multiple applications. The results were obtained using in-situ NAP-XPS measurements at the NAPP endstation of the CIRCE beamline in the ALBA Synchrotron.
An international team of researchers have studied the mechanism by which surface acoustic waves (SAW) enhance catalytic activity. They were able for the first time to measure the effect of SAW on the electronic structure of a Pt model catalyst and achieved a remarkable precision with the new experimental setup at the CIRCE beamline in the ALBA Synchrotron.
