FELIX Laboratory

At the Chemistry and Physics at Low Temperatures (CPLT2022) conference in Visegrád, Hungary, our PhD student Dian Schrauwen won a best poster prizes for her poster titled “Interstellar ices in the lab: probing resonant structural changes due to free electron laser irradiation of interstellar ice analogues”.

The Holland Research School for Molecular Chemistry  has awarded long-time FELIX user Prof. Sandra M. Lang from Ulm University an HRSMC Fellowship for a 5-month collaborative research stay in the Netherlands.

Our brand-new undulator produced its first light, thereby extending the tuning range of FELIX-2 to 3 micron.  The extension of the FELIX wavelength range is one of the projects of the HFML-FELIX NWO Roadmap grant 2018.

Researchers from HFML-FELIX and the University of Amsterdam have extended the boundaries of IRMPD spectroscopy of photostable ions by recording IR spectra of several PAH cations over the range of 6-100 µm using the intracavity free-electron laser FELICE at Radboud University in Nijmegen, where the (far)infrared and THz light intensities are such that bands with very low absorption strengths at long wavelengths can still be excited sufficiently efficient that dissociation occurs. These observations promise the extension of the spectral range used for spectral identification of molecules in space to at least 100 µm.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are abundant in many regions of the universe, representing a major reservoir for cosmic carbon. However, their formation pathways in cold regions of space remained elusive. Until now. Experimental studies at HFML-FELIX at Radboud University recently provided evidence for alternative formation routes of PAHs in cold environments of the universe like molecular clouds or planetary atmospheres. The results have been published in Nature Astronomy.

HFML-FELIX researchers exposed hole- doped Germanium to intense free-electron laser radiation and high magnetic fields up to 33T.  The used experimental technique and the results of their experiments demonstrate the exciting new possibilities for researching nonlinear magneto-optical processes in solids. The results have been published in Physical Review B (Editors' Suggestion).