The XM-1 soft x-ray microscope at the ALS produces images that not only reveal structures but can identify their chemical elements and measure magnetic and other properties as well.

The latest results from a U.S.–German collaboration on the electronic structure of photoexcited buckyball ions show an additional resonance near 40 eV, characterized as a volume plasmon made possible by the special fullerene geometry.

An international team of researchers has identified chemical compounds known as enols as apparently ubiquitous intermediates in flames burning a variety of fuels. This surprising observation will require combustion modelers to revise their models to account for the presence of these compounds.

Handout

At the Ion-Photon Beamline at the ALS, researchers have detected in negative helium ions a resonant simultaneous double-Auger decay of unprecedented strength, evidence of a triply excited hollow-ion state that has eluded observation for 25 years.

Microscopic aerosol particles in the atmosphere contain carbonaceous components from mineral dust and combustion emissions released from around the world. How long these tiny particles remain in the atmosphere can have a huge impact on the global climate.

The unique chemical and physical properties of liquid water are thought to result from the highly directional hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) network structure and its associated dynamics. With the help of a novel liquid microjet apparatus, researchers derived a new energy criterion for H-bonds based on experimental data.

Clostridal neurotoxins (CNTs) are the causative agents of the neuroparalytic diseases botulism and tetanus. Researchers from Stanford University have now determined the first structure of a CNT in complex with its target.

While life scientists have solved the structures of protein channels for ions, uncharged solutes, and even water, up to now they have only been able to guess at the precise mechanisms by which gases cross biological membranes.

Layered transition metal oxides are the focus of intense research efforts because they might clarify the superconducting mechanism of cuprate high-temperature superconductors (HTSCs).

In photoelectron spectroscopy experiments performed at the ALS, a group of researchers has found that electronic transitions normally thought to be forbidden can in fact be excited in conjunction with certain types of molecular vibrations.

The electronic properties of a metal are determined by the dynamical behavior of its conduction electrons. Conventional band theory accounts for the interaction of the electrons with the static ion lattice.

A collaboration between researchers have discovered that the phase transition from metal to insulator that occurs at low temperature in indium wires on the silicon (111) surface involves not only the expected shift in the electronic structure (band-gap opening) but also a band restructuring that gives rise to an energy gap in a second band.

Recent advances in experimental techniques combined with ever-growing theoretical capabilities now hold the promise of presenting an unprecedented picture of violations of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation (BOA), which decouples electronic from nuclear motion in quantum calculations of solids.

Colossal magnetoresistive (CMR) manganites are a class of materials under study for future spintronic applications such as nonvolatile magnetic computer memory (MRAM). Researchers have recently used several soft x-ray spectroscopies at the ALS to study a prototypical CMR manganite as it was heated past its Curie temperature.

G proteins are switches for important signaling cascades, including those that control heart rate and mediate the senses. To adapt to changes, activated G-protein receptors must be rapidly desensitized, a process initiated by GRK enzymes. Researchers at the ALS determined the structure of a form of GRK in complex with portions of its target molecule.