Graphenea is participating in a EU project to enable standardized electrical measurements for future graphene-based electronics. The focus of the project “Grace” is on the development of novel electrical characterization methodologies. Grace brings together graphene producers, metrologists, equipment manufacturers and standardization experts from four countries in a consortium driven to develop industrial-scale graphene characterization tools.
Having started with a kick-off meeting in Torino (Italy) in July 2017, the project will run until July 2020. The consortium consists of Instituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica (INRIM), Centro Español de Metrología (CEM), NPL Management Limited (NPL), Das-Nano S.L., Graphenea, ISC International Standards Consulting GmbH & Co. KG (ISC), The University of Manchester (UoM) and VDE Verband der Elektrotechnik Elektronik Informationstechnik e.V (VDE).
Grace is part of EMPIR, the main programme for European research on metrology, which currently coordinates more than 20 metrology projects across disciplines such as air quality, 3D stacked integrated circuits, biomethane, single-electron devices, etc. The project already resulted in a published comparison of existing experimental methods for electrical characterization of graphene. The objectives of project Grace include:
As such, this project is on the forefront of graphene standardization, which has been a top priority for graphene technology development continuously over the past years, and is one of the primary goals of the Graphene Flagship project.
A simulation of the large-scale structure of the Universe that shows density filaments in blue and places of galaxy formation in yellow. (Image: Zarija Lukic/Berkeley Lab)
This 31 October might be the spookiest Halloween yet. Scientists at CERN are celebrating the hidden sectors of our Universe as part of the international celebration of Dark Matter Day. Dark matter warps distant starlight and enables galaxies to rotate at unfathomable speeds, yet is completely invisible to traditional detectors. In fact, scientists only know that dark matter exists because of its massive gravitational pull on ordinary matter. To catch this stealthy stuff, scientists must become a little more creative with how they search for it.
Today, CERN scientists will be showcasing the tools and techniques they are using to uncover the true nature of dark matter. At 15.00 CET, researchers from the CAST experiment will explain, during a Facebook Live session, how the Sun could radiate these invisible particles. Later this evening, scientists will explore how and why they are looking for dark matter, during a public event in CERN’s Globe of Science and Innovation, webcast live from 20.00 CET.
Can’t make it to the CERN events? There are numerous organisations around the world hosting activities to celebrate Dark Matter Day and plenty of ways to engage with the hunt from home. Check out this TED-Ed animation, which explains how the LHC could create dark matter, or find out when the Phantom of the Universe show is being screened at a planetarium near you.
As you celebrate and explore unexplainable mysteries during your Halloween celebrations, remember, don’t be afraid of the dark!
ESA and NASA space telescopes have revealed that, unlike Earth’s polar lights, the intense auroras seen at Jupiter’s poles unexpectedly behave independently of one another.
The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), pictured during a recent technical stop. (Image: Max Brice/CERN)
Accelerator operators can perform amazing acrobatics with particle beams, most recently in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), CERN’s second-largest accelerator. For the first time, they have successfully injected a beam of partially ionised xenon particles into the SPS and accelerated it. Before they were injected into the SPS, these atoms were stripped of 39 of their 54 electrons.
During the first test, which took place in September, the beam was injected into the SPS ring and circulated for about one second. Now, the beam has been accelerated for the first time, reaching an energy of 81.6 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) per nucleon.
What makes this performance so remarkable is that these beams of partially ionised xenon atoms are extremely fragile and have a very short lifespan. If an atom loses just one of its 15 electrons, it changes orbit and is lost. “The SPS vacuum is not quite as high as that of the LHC. The residual gas molecules present in the vacuum chamber disturb the beam, which explains why it is lost quite quickly,” says Reyes Alemany, who is responsible for the SPS tests. “But keeping the beam going for one cycle in the SPS is already a very promising result!”
So why are accelerator physicists experimenting with these atoms? It’s to test a novel idea: a high-intensity source of gamma rays (photons with energies in the megaelectronvolt (MeV) range). This gamma factory, as it is known, would generate photons of up to 400 MeV in energy and at intensities comparable to those of synchrotrons or X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). XFELs produce high-intensity beams of X-rays – that is, photons of an energy of less than about 100 kiloelectronvolts (keV).
“A source of that kind would pave the way for studies never done before in fundamental physics, in the fields of quantum electrodynamics or dark matter research,” explains Witold Krasny, a CNRS physicist and CERN associate who founded the project and leads the work group. “It also opens the door for industrial and medical applications.” It could even serve as a test bench for a future neutrino factory or muon collider.
The principle is to accelerate partially ionised atoms and then excite them using a laser. As they return to their stable state, the atoms release high-energy photons.
The team took advantage of the presence of xenon in the accelerator complex to carry out this first test without disrupting the other ongoing physics programmes. Next year, during the LHC heavy-ion run, the team will repeat the experiment using ionised lead atoms, which will be stripped of all but one or two electrons. Those beams will be much more stable; having fewer electrons means that the atoms are less at risk of losing them. In addition, their electrons are only found in the “K” shell, the closest to the nucleus, and therefore have a stronger link to the nucleus than in the xenon atoms. The heavy-ion beams could be accelerated first in the SPS and then in the LHC.
The gamma factory project is part of the Physics Beyond Colliders study, which was launched in 2016 with the goal of investigating all possible non-collider experiments, particularly those that could be done using CERN’s accelerator complex. Hundreds of scientists are expected to attend the annual Physics Beyond Colliders conference at CERN at the end of November.
IdeaSquare is an innovation hub at CERN (Image: Jean-Claude Gadmer/CERN)
Today, IdeaSquare at CERN is hosting The Other Side of Innovation – a workshop to discover how collaboration across disciplines and rapid prototyping is shaping innovation.
Professor of technology and innovation at ETH Zürich, Stefano Brusoni, will give a talk on the divergent process of innovation, while Bruno Herbelin, deputy director of the Center for Neuroprosthetics at EPFL, will showcase how virtual reality can be used by researchers.
IdeaSquare is an innovation hub at CERN, which aims to bring together people from many fields, to generate new ideas and work on conceptual prototypes related to detector research in an open, collaborative environment.
It brings together CERN personnel, visiting students, and external project collaborators from the domains of research, technology development and education. It also contributes to CERN’s Knowledge Transfer Group, helping them to shape and innovate new product ideas into socially and globally relevant activities.
For more information, visit the event page.
Inside one of the protoDUNE detectors, currently under construction at CERN (Image: Max Brice/CERN)
A new duo is living in CERN’s test beam area. On the outside, they look like a pair of Rubik’s Cubes that rubbed a magic lamp and transformed into castle turrets. But on the inside, they’ve got the glamour of a disco ball.
These 12m x 12m x 12m boxes are two prototypes for the massive detectors of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). DUNE, an international experiment hosted by Fermilab in the United States, will live deep underground and trap neutrinos: tiny fundamental particles that rarely interact with matter.
“Learning more about neutrinos could help us better understand how the early Universe evolved and why the world is made of matter and not antimatter,” said Stefania Bordoni, a CERN researcher working on neutrino detector development.
These DUNE prototypes are testing two variations of a detection technique first developed by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia. Each cube is a chilled thermos that will hold approximately 800 tonnes of liquid argon. When a neutrino bumps into an atom of argon, it will release a flash of light and a cascade of electrons, which will glide through the electrically charged chamber to detectors lining the walls.
Inside their reinforced walls sits a liquid-tight metallic balloon, which can expand and contract to accommodate the changing volume of the argon as it cools from a gas to a liquid.
Even though theses cubes are huge, they are mere miniature models of the final detectors, which will be 20 times larger and together hold a total of 72 000 tonnes of liquid argon.
In the coming months, these prototypes will be cooled down so that their testing can begin using a dedicated beam line at CERN’s SPS accelerator complex.
The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), pictured during a recent technical stop. (Image: Max Brice/CERN)
Accelerator operators can perform amazing acrobatics with particle beams, most recently in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), CERN’s second-largest accelerator. For the first time, they have successfully injected a beam of partially ionised xenon particles into the SPS and accelerated it. Before they were injected into the SPS, these atoms were stripped of 39 of their 54 electrons.
During the first test, which took place in September, the beam was injected into the SPS ring and circulated for about one second. Now, the beam has been accelerated for the first time, reaching an energy of 81.6 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) per nucleon.
What makes this performance so remarkable is that these beams of partially ionised xenon atoms are extremely fragile and have a very short lifespan. If an atom loses just one of its 15 electrons, it changes orbit and is lost. “The SPS vacuum is not quite as high as that of the LHC. The residual gas molecules present in the vacuum chamber disturb the beam, which explains why it is lost quite quickly,” says Reyes Alemany, who is responsible for the SPS tests. “But keeping the beam going for one cycle in the SPS is already a very promising result!”
So why are accelerator physicists experimenting with these atoms? It’s to test a novel idea: a high-intensity source of gamma rays (photons with energies in the megaelectronvolt (MeV) range). This gamma factory, as it is known, would generate photons of up to 400 MeV in energy and at intensities comparable to those of synchrotrons or X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). XFELs produce high-intensity beams of X-rays – that is, photons of an energy of less than about 100 kiloelectronvolts (keV).
“A source of that kind would pave the way for studies never done before in fundamental physics, in the fields of quantum electrodynamics or dark matter research,” explains Witold Krasny, a CNRS physicist and CERN associate who founded the project and leads the work group. “It also opens the door for industrial and medical applications.” It could even serve as a test bench for a future neutrino factory or muon collider.
The principle is to accelerate partially ionised atoms and then excite them using a laser. As they return to their stable state, the atoms release high-energy photons.
The team took advantage of the presence of xenon in the accelerator complex to carry out this first test without disrupting the other ongoing physics programmes. Next year, during the LHC heavy-ion run, the team will repeat the experiment using ionised lead atoms, which will be stripped of all but one or two electrons. Those beams will be much more stable; having fewer electrons means that the atoms are less at risk of losing them. In addition, their electrons are only found in the “K” shell, the closest to the nucleus, and therefore have a stronger link to the nucleus than in the xenon atoms. The heavy-ion beams could be accelerated first in the SPS and then in the LHC.
The gamma factory project is part of the Physics Beyond Colliders study, which was launched in 2016 with the goal of investigating all possible non-collider experiments, particularly those that could be done using CERN’s accelerator complex. Hundreds of scientists are expected to attend the annual Physics Beyond Colliders conference at CERN at the end of November.
IdeaSquare is an innovation hub at CERN (Image: Jean-Claude Gadmer/CERN)
Today, IdeaSquare at CERN is hosting The Other Side of Innovation – a workshop to discover how collaboration across disciplines and rapid prototyping is shaping innovation.
Professor of technology and innovation at ETH Zürich, Stefano Brusoni, will give a talk on the divergent process of innovation, while Bruno Herbelin, deputy director of the Center for Neuroprosthetics at EPFL, will showcase how virtual reality can be used by researchers.
IdeaSquare is an innovation hub at CERN, which aims to bring together people from many fields, to generate new ideas and work on conceptual prototypes related to detector research in an open, collaborative environment.
It brings together CERN personnel, visiting students, and external project collaborators from the domains of research, technology development and education. It also contributes to CERN’s Knowledge Transfer Group, helping them to shape and innovate new product ideas into socially and globally relevant activities.
For more information, visit the event page.
Inside one of the protoDUNE detectors, currently under construction at CERN (Image: Max Brice/CERN)
A new duo is living in CERN’s test beam area. On the outside, they look like a pair of Rubik’s Cubes that rubbed a magic lamp and transformed into castle turrets. But on the inside, they’ve got the glamour of a disco ball.
These 12m x 12m x 12m boxes are two prototypes for the massive detectors of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). DUNE, an international experiment hosted by Fermilab in the United States, will live deep underground and trap neutrinos: tiny fundamental particles that rarely interact with matter.
“Learning more about neutrinos could help us better understand how the early Universe evolved and why the world is made of matter and not antimatter,” said Stefania Bordoni, a CERN researcher working on neutrino detector development.
These DUNE prototypes are testing two variations of a detection technique first developed by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia. Each cube is a chilled thermos that will hold approximately 800 tonnes of liquid argon. When a neutrino bumps into an atom of argon, it will release a flash of light and a cascade of electrons, which will glide through the electrically charged chamber to detectors lining the walls.
Inside their reinforced walls sits a liquid-tight metallic balloon, which can expand and contract to accommodate the changing volume of the argon as it cools from a gas to a liquid.
Even though theses cubes are huge, they are mere miniature models of the final detectors, which will be 20 times larger and together hold a total of 72 000 tonnes of liquid argon.
In the coming months, these prototypes will be cooled down so that their testing can begin using a dedicated beam line at CERN’s SPS accelerator complex.
The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), pictured during a recent technical stop. (Image: Max Brice/CERN)
Accelerator operators can perform amazing acrobatics with particle beams, most recently in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), CERN’s second-largest accelerator. For the first time, they have successfully injected a beam of partially ionised xenon particles into the SPS and accelerated it. Before they were injected into the SPS, these atoms were stripped of 39 of their 54 electrons.
During the first test, which took place in September, the beam was injected into the SPS ring and circulated for about one second. Now, the beam has been accelerated for the first time, reaching an energy of 81.6 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) per nucleon.
What makes this performance so remarkable is that these beams of partially ionised xenon atoms are extremely fragile and have a very short lifespan. If an atom loses just one of its 15 electrons, it changes orbit and is lost. “The SPS vacuum is not quite as high as that of the LHC. The residual gas molecules present in the vacuum chamber disturb the beam, which explains why it is lost quite quickly,” says Reyes Alemany, who is responsible for the SPS tests. “But keeping the beam going for one cycle in the SPS is already a very promising result!”
So why are accelerator physicists experimenting with these atoms? It’s to test a novel idea: a high-intensity source of gamma rays (photons with energies in the megaelectronvolt (MeV) range). This gamma factory, as it is known, would generate photons of up to 400 MeV in energy and at intensities comparable to those of synchrotrons or X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). XFELs produce high-intensity beams of X-rays – that is, photons of an energy of less than about 100 kiloelectronvolts (keV).
“A source of that kind would pave the way for studies never done before in fundamental physics, in the fields of quantum electrodynamics or dark matter research,” explains Witold Krasny, a CNRS physicist and CERN associate who founded the project and leads the work group. “It also opens the door for industrial and medical applications.” It could even serve as a test bench for a future neutrino factory or muon collider.
The principle is to accelerate partially ionised atoms and then excite them using a laser. As they return to their stable state, the atoms release high-energy photons.
The team took advantage of the presence of xenon in the accelerator complex to carry out this first test without disrupting the other ongoing physics programmes. Next year, during the LHC heavy-ion run, the team will repeat the experiment using ionised lead atoms, which will be stripped of all but one or two electrons. Those beams will be much more stable; having fewer electrons means that the atoms are less at risk of losing them. In addition, their electrons are only found in the “K” shell, the closest to the nucleus, and therefore have a stronger link to the nucleus than in the xenon atoms. The heavy-ion beams could be accelerated first in the SPS and then in the LHC.
The gamma factory project is part of the Physics Beyond Colliders study, which was launched in 2016 with the goal of investigating all possible non-collider experiments, particularly those that could be done using CERN’s accelerator complex. Hundreds of scientists are expected to attend the annual Physics Beyond Colliders conference at CERN at the end of November.
Nighttime Titanium Oxide Snow Leaves Dayside Cloud-Free and Cooler
Travelers to the nightside of exoplanet Kepler-13Ab should pack an umbrella because they will be pelted with precipitation. But it's not the kind of watery precipitation that falls on Earth. On this alien world, the precipitation is in the form of sunscreen.
Ironically, the sunscreen (titanium oxide) is not needed on this side of the planet because it never receives any sunlight. But bottling up some sunlight protection is a good idea if travelers plan on visiting the sizzling hot, permanent dayside, which always faces its star. Visitors won't find any desperately needed sunscreen on this part of the planet.
Astronomers didn't detect the titanium oxide directly. They used Hubble to find that the atmospheric temperature grows increasingly colder with altitude on Kepler-13Ab, which was contrary to what they had expected. If titanium oxide were in the daytime atmosphere, it would absorb light and heat the upper atmosphere. Instead, high winds carry the titanium oxide around to the permanently dark side of the planet where it condenses to form clouds and precipitation. The planet's crushing gravity pulls all the titanium oxide so far down it can't be recycled back into the upper atmosphere on the daytime side.
The Hubble observations represent the first time astronomers have detected this precipitation process, called a "cold trap," on an exoplanet.
Kepler-13Ab is one of the hottest known planets, with a dayside temperature of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The Kepler-13 system resides 1,730 light-years from Earth.
Last year, a fountain of dust was spotted streaming from Rosetta’s comet, prompting the question: how was it powered? Scientists now suggest the outburst was driven from inside the comet, perhaps released from ancient gas vents or pockets of hidden ice.
The world's first ISO (International Organisation for Standardization) graphene standard has been published. The standard will provide consistency across the emerging world-wide graphene industry and accelerate the 2D material's commercial exploitation.
The new international standard, led by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), defines the terminology used to describe the many different forms of graphene and related 2D materials, supporting companies in the testing and validation of the 'wonder material'. The standard can be accessed online free of charge. Graphenea is proud that our CVD graphene obeys the definition put forward by the new standard for “graphene”, “monolayer graphene”, and “single-layer graphene”.
Graphenea is working closely with NPL on this project as well as other graphene standardization projects.
IdeaSquare is an innovation hub at CERN (Image: Jean-Claude Gadmer/CERN)
Today, IdeaSquare at CERN is hosting The Other Side of Innovation – a workshop to discover how collaboration across disciplines and rapid prototyping is shaping innovation.
Professor of technology and innovation at ETH Zürich, Stefano Brusoni, will give a talk on the divergent process of innovation, while Bruno Herbelin, deputy director of the Center for Neuroprosthetics at EPFL, will showcase how virtual reality can be used by researchers.
IdeaSquare is an innovation hub at CERN, which aims to bring together people from many fields, to generate new ideas and work on conceptual prototypes related to detector research in an open, collaborative environment.
It brings together CERN personnel, visiting students, and external project collaborators from the domains of research, technology development and education. It also contributes to CERN’s Knowledge Transfer Group, helping them to shape and innovate new product ideas into socially and globally relevant activities.
For more information, visit the event page.
Inside one of the protoDUNE detectors, currently under construction at CERN (Image: Max Brice/CERN)
A new duo is living in CERN’s test beam area. On the outside, they look like a pair of Rubik’s Cubes that rubbed a magic lamp and transformed into castle turrets. But on the inside, they’ve got the glamour of a disco ball.
These 12m x 12m x 12m boxes are two prototypes for the massive detectors of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). DUNE, an international experiment hosted by Fermilab in the United States, will live deep underground and trap neutrinos: tiny fundamental particles that rarely interact with matter.
“Learning more about neutrinos could help us better understand how the early Universe evolved and why the world is made of matter and not antimatter,” said Stefania Bordoni, a CERN researcher working on neutrino detector development.
These DUNE prototypes are testing two variations of a detection technique first developed by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia. Each cube is a chilled thermos that will hold approximately 800 of liquid argon. When a neutrino bumps into an atom of argon, it will release a flash of light and a cascade of electrons, which will glide through the electrically charged chamber to detectors lining the walls.
Inside their reinforced walls sits a liquid-tight metallic balloon, which can expand and contract to accommodate the changing volume of the argon as it cools from a gas to a liquid.
Even though theses cubes are huge, they are mere miniature models of the final detectors, which will be 20 times larger and hold a total of 72 000 tonnes of liquid argon.
In the coming months, these prototypes will be cooled down so that their testing can begin using a dedicated beam line at CERN’s SPS accelerator complex.
