News

The International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA) has appointed DIFFER group leader Prof. Marco de Baar as chair of its Realtime Specialists Working Group (RT-SWG). The ITPA is an international framework organised by the global ITER fusion project to coordinate fusion research.

Since the summer of 2018, DIFFER houses a transmission electron microscope (TEM) that is dedicated for structural analysis of inorganic materials. The microscope is accessible for researchers who want to image newly developed nanomaterials or thin films aimed at energy applications.

Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to tackle complex problems. That is exactly what happened when DIFFER researcher Matthijs van Berkel used a systems engineering approach to study the heat transport in a fusion plasma.

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.

So-called plasmonic sensors of noble metal nanoparticles follow how electrical charge is transfered during chemical reactions and energy conversion processes.