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Research
X-ray eyes and coffee culture
Research
X-ray eyes and coffee culture
One of the places of interest in Trieste is the church of Sant’Antonio Nuovo. It is located at the end of the Canal Grande, the historic waterway leading from the harbour to the city centre.
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Forschungszentrum Jülich’s campus is 2.2 square kilometres in size. However, Jülich scientists are active even beyond the campus – at the particle accelerator Elettra in Trieste, for example.Why there?
Dr. Vitaly Feyer is one of three Jülich researchers who work at the Italian synchrotron radiation facility Elettra.
Image above: One of the places of interest in Trieste is the church of Sant’Antonio Nuovo. It is located at the end of the Canal Grande, the historic waterway leading from the harbour to the city centre.
Why do you work at Elettra?
The system generates intensive light, from the infrared range to X-rays. The special features of the light source make it possible to work with a very high spatial resolution. This is important for investigating the surfaces and interfaces of materials down to the nanometre scale. I use a special device for this: the NanoESCA microscope.
Who else uses the microscope?
30 per cent of the beam time is available to us Jülich researchers. The rest of the time, we support colleagues from all over the world in their experiments.
What is your own research about?
I am interested in processes that take place when organic molecules attach to metallic surfaces. These are important for the information technology of the future.
Vitaliy Feyer investigates the surfaces and interfaces of materials. About
scientists from more than
countries use Elettra every year – the Germans being the largest group after the Italians.
Local geography
City of science
The EuroScience Open Forum has proclaimed Trieste the “European City of Science 2020”. Trieste will host the largest interdisciplinary meeting of scientists in Europe.
Coffee culture
The people of Trieste drink coffee from ten kilos of beans every year, which is more than twice as much as other Italians. And they have their own names: an espresso is called “caffè nero”, an espresso with a dash of milk is a “capo”.
Free territory
From 1947 to 1954, Trieste and its surroundings were a neutral state under the sovereignty of the United Nations. It was called “Free Territory of Trieste”. The area was claimed by Yugoslavia and Italy during this period.
Images: Forschungszentrum Jülich, Sopotnicki/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM