The ALBA Synchrotron has organized a contest for awarding the best scientific and technological performances of its staff during 2013.
Ricardo Valcárcel and Jose Ávila won the category of "best experiment" for their work "Imaging magnetic domains at Mistral". In this experiment, magnetic domains were imaged with X-ray microscopy, resulting that the magnetic coupling of the Fe and of the Co is basically antiferromagnetic. The level of difficulty of this experiment was very high - as it is fully non-standard to Mistral beamline – and required the contribution of many internal and external collaborators (Universidad de Oviedo, ICMAB-CSIC). The design of the sample holder was done by Ricardo Valcárcel, guided by Salvador Ferrer and Eva Pereiro. José Ávila, with the support of Óscar Matilla, was in charge of testing and calibrating the whole set-up of the experiment.
The category of "best instrumental development" was for Igors Šics and Catalin Popescu for their "Inline pressure calibration set-up". This new set-up for high pressure calibration is based on the ruby fluorescence method enabling the determination of the in-situ pressure in diamond anvil cell. The design is being used in MSPD beamline and enables a simultaneous fluorescence spectra measurement with sample visualization, in contrast to commercially available devices which use moving parts such as flipping mirrors.
These awards were presented by ALBA's director, Caterina Biscari, and ALBA's scientific director, Miguel Ángel García Aranda in a ceremony held last June 11th.
This initiative is aimed at promoting in-house research and technology and may be also extended to other divisions in the near future.
In the picture on the left, detail of the experiment. Next, Ricardo Valcárcel and José Ávila with their diplomas, accompanied by Miguel Ángel García Aranda and Caterina Biscari.
View of the inline pressure calibration system. In the next picture, Igors Šics and Catalin Popescu, after collecting their diplomas.
