Scanning transmission x-ray microscopy

Flipping the Switch on Antiferromagnets

December 8, 2016

Over the past three years a team of researchers has worked to understand the thermodynamic transitions in the antiferromagnetic ferroelectric BiFeO3 with La substitutions in relation to a new strategy for finding the ultimate magnetoelectric single phase material. The researchers made the striking finding that structural, ferroelectric, and magnetic phases evolve due to strong spin-lattice coupling, thereby producing a multiferroic triple phase point where three competing multiferroic phases merge.

Observing Oxygen Atoms Move during Information Storage in Tantalum Oxide Memristors

April 30, 2016

Theorized decades ago and currently being developed into useable technology, memristors are passive memory storage units especially useful for nanoelectronics. Memristors could replace the ageing flash memory in the near future. Memristors are usually made of a transition metal oxide layered between two metallic electrodes and are able to change their resistance in a non-volatile way between two states depending on an applied voltage.

In Situ and Ex Situ Studies of Platinum Nanocrystals: Growth and Evolution in Solution

January 25, 2010

Crystals of different sizes and shapes have different functional properties. This is certainly true in the case of platinum nanocrystals, which can be used to increase catalytic reactions including hydrogen cell fuel oxidation. Understanding crystallization processes will allow researchers to fine-tune the shape, size, and quality of crystals for specific, tailored applications.

3D View Inside the Skeleton with X-ray Microscopy: Imaging Bone at the Nanoscale

June 28, 2010

The 3D structure of bone is critical for maintaining strength. Skeletal diseases such as osteoporosis and environmental conditions such as weightlessness, radiation, and vitamin D deficiency can affect bone structure. Understanding the 3D structure of bone is critical to understanding how these conditions affect bone's form and function.

Defining the processes controlling arsenic uptake by rice (Oryza sativa L.)

November 29, 2010

Rice, the grain that provides more than one-fifth of the world population's calories, can become a health hazard if contaminated with arsenic. Such contamination, a surprisingly widespread occurrence, takes place in areas where soil or irrigation water is tainted by naturally occurring arsenic--including broad swaths of south and southeastern Asia. Studies have suggested that the natural iron coating around the roots of rice plants may serve as an important barrier to arsenic uptake because arsenic in its oxidized form has an affinity for iron. A team of Stanford and SSRL researchers recently sought to learn just how significant a barrier iron provides.

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