X-ray pulses uncover free nanoparticles for the first time in 3-D
Wednesday, February 4, 2015 - 13:00
in Physics & Chemistry
For the first time, a German-American research team has determined the three-dimensional shape of free-flying silver nanoparticles, using DESY's X-ray laser FLASH. The tiny particles, hundreds of times smaller than the width of a human hair, were found to exhibit an unexpected variety of shapes, as the physicists from the Technical University (TU) Berlin, the University of Rostock, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States and from DESY report in the scientific journal Nature Communications. Besides this surprise, the results open up new scientific routes, such as direct observation of rapid changes in nanoparticles.