The study of near–threshold meson production in pp and pd collisions involving polarized beams and polarized targets offers the rare opportunity to gain insight into short– range features of the nucleon–nucleon interaction. The Cooler Synchrotron COSY at FZ– Jülich is a unique environment to perform such studies. Measurements of polarization observables require a cylindrically symmetrical detec...

Gas-phase methyl radicals have been long proposed as the key intermediate in catalytic oxidative coupling of methane, but the direct experimental evidence still lacks. Here, employing synchrotron VUV photoionization mass spectroscopy, we have directly observed the formation of gas-phase methyl radicals during oxidative coupling of methane catalyzed by Li/MgO catalysts. The concentration of gas-...

Modification of chemical order in epitaxial FePt binary alloy thin films deposited on MgO 100 substrates was induced and investigated in real time using x-ray rapid thermal annealing XRTA . This is possible because synchrotron undulator radiation has sufficient power density to induce significant structural modifications in thin films and its energy can be tuned to optimize absorption in the sa...

We present a new differential-thickness coating technique to analyze insulating samples with X-ray PhotoElectron Emission spectroMicroscopy (X-PEEM). X-PEEM is non-destructive, analyzes the chemical composition and crystal structure of minerals and can spatially resolve chemical species with a resolution presently reaching 35 nm. We tested the differential coating by analyzing a 4.4 billion-yea...

A report on the establishment of the European Synchrotron User Organization (ESUO), a body representing the interests of synchrotron radiation users across Europe.