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Stacking faults in colloidal photonic crystals revealed by microradian X-ray diffraction
The presence of a network of intersecting stacking faults in self-assembled colloidal crystals was demonstrated with X-ray diffraction with microradian resolution. These defects can seriously affect the optical properties of photonic materials fabricated using colloid self-a…
How the genetic code is accurately translated into protein
The production of proteins is performed in all organisms by ribosomes, nanomachines that carry out the translation of an mRNA sequence and the subsequent synthesis of a protein from that sequence. Ensuring that the genetic code is correctly translated into a functional prote…
3D Ordered gold strings by coating nanoparticles with mesogens
Gold nanoparticles associate into highly-ordered structures when coated with ligands formed from mesogens, the rigid part of a liquid-crystal molecule. The nanoparticles no longer follow the usual packing of spheres and form columnar structures, strings, with interparticle s…
Local symmetries in disordered matter uncovered by coherent X-ray scattering
Local symmetries in colloidal glasses were investigated by coherent X-ray scattering. The speckle patterns were analysed by a novel angular cross correlation technique to unravel the hidden local symmetries within the glassy disorder. Four-, 6-, 10- and most prevalently 5-fo…
Circularly polarised X-rays as a probe of non-collinear magnetic order in multiferroic TbMnO3
A circularly polarised incident beam for non-resonant X-ray magnetic scattering together with full polarisation analysis of the diffracted beam has allowed ESRF scientists to shed light on the complex non-collinear magnetic structure of multiferroic TbMnO3, a challenging tes…
An X-ray bilens nanointerferometer
A novel type of hard X-ray interferometer employing a bilens system with two parallel arrays of compound refractive lenses has been developed by scientists from France and Russia. Under coherent illumination, the bilens generates two diffraction limited mutually coherent bea…
Structure of metallic oxygen
Solid oxygen undergoes an insulator to metal transition at 96 GPa. Scientists investigated the structural changes that accompany metallisation using single crystal X-ray diffraction.…
Core-shell nanowires reveal their inner structure
Nature creates the most complex structures by assembling single atoms or molecules into functional building blocks. Semiconductor physics has been exploring this “self-assembly” phenomenon for several decades. An interesting example is self-assembled core-shell nanowir…
Molecular mechanism of bacterial survival against antimicrobial peptides revealed by X-ray studies
Lipopolysaccharides form the outer-most surface of Gram-negative bacteria, acting as the protector against chemical attack. Scientists have designed a model of bacterial surfaces at the air/water interface and solid/liquid interface, and then studied the impacts of ion speci…
Synchrotron optics simulations: 3-codes tutorial