Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. ‘Transparent aluminium’ previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion. An international team, led by Oxford University scientists, report that a short pulse from the FLASH laser ‘knocks out’ a core electron. (source: ox.ac.uk)
|
