Germany New Instrument Tender

A new instrument became available to the users of BESSY II on Oct. 28 2019. The new beamline and apparatus for spin- and angular-resolved photoemission in the Russian-German Laboratory at BESSY II have successfully completed their test phase. They facilitate precise measurements of the electron band structure and spin of different material classes such as topological insulators and magnetic sandwich structures as well as novel perovskite-based solar-cell materials. A photoelectron microscope has also been developed which is particularly important for nanoscopic structures.The Russian-German Laboratory has existed at BESSY II for more than fifteen years operating its own beamline for absorption and photoelectron spectroscopy. Now in addition to the dipole beamline lab members have also set up a powerful measurement station for spin- and angularly-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and photoelectron microscopy on an undulator beamline. This measurement station was developed together with Technische Universitt Dresden TU Dresden and Freie Universitt Berlin through a German Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF grant. The measurement station along with Russian and German user-support teams will be available beginning at the next beamtime period.International WorkshopProf. Eckart Rhl of Freie Universitt Berlin chairman of the laboratorys steering committee emphasises the strong ties with Russian colleagues. In order to familiarise Russian research groups with the new opportunities offered by the instrument we have launched the instrument as part of an international workshop explains Rhl. 26 researchers seven women and nineteen men from Russia Germany Spain and Japan will report on their experiments over the two-day event.Measuring spin-orbit interactionsIn recent years spin-orbit interactions i.e. the coupling of magnetic orientation to the direction of motion of electrons has developed without pause to become a main research topic in solid-state physics. This was particularly due to the discovery of a new class of materials called topological insulators which was honoured by the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics explains Prof. Oliver Rader of the HZB in whose department the new instrument is located. This led to a sharp increase in international demand for experiments that can detect spin directly. The current interest in stable two-dimensional solids might also contribute to this demand as well for novel two-dimensional magnets such as CrI3 have been discovered in recent years.Reception at the Russian EmbassyThe great importance attached to the laboratory was exemplified by the participation of the Embassy of the Russian Federation Alexander Rusinov attach for the Department of Education Science and Technology at the Embassy gave the opening address and the Federation Ambassador received the participants in the evening.Partners of the collaborationThe collaboration is being supported by Freie Universitt Berlin TU Dresden TU Freiberg and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin on the German side while from the Russian side by St. Petersburg State Univerisity the Kurchatov Institute Moscow Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Ioffe Institute St. Petersburg and the Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography Moscow.