The new plasma diagnostic MANTIS developed by DIFFER is giving a detailed look at the plasma conditions in the Swiss fusion experiment TCV. With 10 different channels and a frame rate of 200-2000 images per second, MANTIS can analyse density, temperature and the presence of impurities in the intense exhaust plasma of TCV. With its real-time data analysis capability, MANTIS is designed to hook into the reactor control system and steer the plasma to optimal conditions.
News
October 16th 2018
So-called plasmonic sensors of noble metal nanoparticles follow how electrical charge is transfered during chemical reactions and energy conversion processes. In a recent paper in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C, DIFFER researchers Matteo Parente and Andrea Baldi together with the Jennifer Dionne group at Stanford University delivered distinct proof that these sensors work in an entirely different way than presumed before. Baldi and Parente: ‘We think this will lead to a whole new level of understanding of photochemical reactions.’
October 3rd 2018
Ruben Hamans is one of the three finalists for the 2017 KNCV Golden Master Thesis award. Ruben did his thesis in the Nanomaterials for Energy Applications group at DIFFER, working on the assembly of a super-resolution microscope. This instrument is capable of imaging catalytic reactions at the surface of metallic nanoparticles with single molecule accuracy and sub-wavelength spatial resolution. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, October 9, at the Avond van de Chemie 2018 in Den Haag.
September 3rd 2018
Starting September 2018, the DIFFER group Photonics for Energy, headed by prof. Jaime Gómez Rivas, will become a full part of Eindhoven University of Technology. The group studies the interaction of electromagnetic waves and matter in a broad range of frequencies and at different temporal and spatial scales . This research covers also applications from light harvesting and energy transport in materials to light emitting materials. Photonics for Energy was part of the Solar Fuels division of DIFFER from 2015 to 2018 and continues its frontier work as the Surface Photonics group in the Photonics and Semiconductor Nanophysics capacity group of the Applied Physics department of TU/e .
July 30th 2018
Scientists are looking for ways to make chemical reactions run on light. This may open the possibility to synthesize nanomaterials with unique properties and to steer chemical reactions towards new products. In one approach, metal nanoparticles added to a reactor can selectively absorb light and convert its energy to promote the growth of a thin shell of a different metal around them. PhD student Rifat Kamarudheen and his colleagues at DIFFER and Eindhoven University of Technology set out to discover exactly how this process works. The answer, which they describe in a recent article in the journal ACS Nano, surprised them.
