Tweet

@LNM_eth

@Wikipedia

More from @RealSci_Nano

Jose @ RealScientist Nano

@RealSci_Nano

Nov 6

I still don't know what kind of job I want to do after I finish my PhD.

But at least I found the answer to what kind of job I do not want:

I don't want a bullshit job!

(and they are way more common than we want to admit, even among "blue-collar" jobs.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_…

BS job="a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary, or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case."

@AltAcChats

I promised that I would talk about career opportunities after the PhD and other @AltAcChats using a university-organized event that I attended this week.

Well, I was recommended not to, sorry!

However, this book (50% read atm) is helping me clarify that.

Read 5 tweets

Jose @ RealScientist Nano

@RealSci_Nano

Nov 6

Imagine that you design the perfect cake. Due to the combination of different layers of ingredients, it will have awesome unrealistic properties. A #meta cake!

But: will the structure withstand the temperatures needed during baking?

Thread on my paper 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ad…

Instead of a cake, we designed a near-perfect absorber.

Less than 0.1% of the light hitting it can escape it!

How is that possible? By disorder!

Turns out that having the layers of ingredients intermix a bit makes an even better cake!

https://twitter.com/RealSci_Nano/status/1588599430109794304?s=20&t=jSoKGRZHgdK004tyQiPraA

1st lesson: it's not always worth it to find a fabrication technique that avoids intermixing.

Those techniques are way slower and don't necessarily improve their properties.

A step towards scalable, large-area #metamaterials.

https://twitter.com/RealSci_Nano/status/1587850498723532801?s=20&t=t9w4Tr0ovaClngfiV4z5DQ

Read 14 tweets

Jose @ RealScientist Nano

@RealSci_Nano

Nov 4

@LNM_eth

On Wednesday I tried to define a #metamaterial.

Now it's time to define #metals, which should be way easier, right?

Spoiler: even in a #metallurgy group @LNM_eth, not everyone agrees!

https://twitter.com/RealSci_Nano/status/1587733696932679680?s=20&t=uD_atWJY3kTRdNhQo7gg0A

First a list of "high-school science" definitions that don't really help us. The

"Metals are reflective": Yes but not all reflective things are metals. Not definition friendly.

"Metals are ductile and malleable, easy to work with": Not necessarily. Good luck working with Tungsten, which is definitely metal.

This article tells a bit about how hard making the Tungsten filaments that we used on lights was!

americanscientist.org/article/tungst…

Read 16 tweets

Jose @ RealScientist Nano

@RealSci_Nano

Oct 6

@RPittkowski

Finally, the thread (you didn't know) you have been waiting for 🥳 "How can we use X-ray scattering to learn about the way the atoms sit in a #small #nanoparticle?" - lets use the Pair Distribution Function #PDF ! It's all about the neighbors 1/6 /@RPittkowski

To get information from small #nanoparticles, where periodic lattice planes are rare, we measure the X-ray scattering to very large scattering angles. This is called #Xray #totalscattering. So we need to come veeeery close with the detector to our sample.😱😬 2/6

Again, we integrate our scattering image (check up older tweets), but we are not done yet. More data treatment is necessary. We use a #Fouriertransform and transform from reciprocal (Q) space to #real #space - and there we have it, our PDF 😍3/6

Read 6 tweets

Jose @ RealScientist Nano

@RealSci_Nano

Oct 6

@desynews

After yesterday's Nobel celebration we are back on track . I believe I promised something on #data #analysis
A thread 🧵on how we extract the data from our #robot beamtime @desynews @p021_desy and how we figure out the #arrangement of #atoms in our samples /@RPittkowski 1/6

We get these beautiful 2D images from where the #scattered #X-ray beam hits the detector plate. What you see below is the scattering recorded for LaB6 - not surprising that we use it as a standard for calibration when you look at the beautiful #rings 2/6

By radial integration we get a 1D diffraction pattern, which shows distinct Bragg peaks for each ring on the 2D image. I made a very boring #GIF where you can see how the #rings relate to #peaks in the pattern 3/6

Read 6 tweets

Jose @ RealScientist Nano

@RealSci_Nano

Oct 4

@p021_desy

I will try to give you a little #glimpse of the experiments we were running the past days at the P02.1 beamline at DESY @p021_desy
The experiments did involve a #robot 🤓🤖 and many, many tiny glass capillaries....

A #thread 🧵 with a robot #video 1/6 @RPittkowski

First, we place capillaries filled with #nanoparticles (small glass tubes) on a holder, which the robot can later grab. This involves a lot of wax and steady hands, to place the capillaries in a straight way. In the picture you can see a sample rack full of capillaries. 2/6

Here you can see a sample spinning in the lab, to check if the capillaries are straight, or if we need to move them a little to even out any wobbling👩‍🔬- we can melt the wax again and angle them new 3/6