X-ray magnetism

Researchers are studying how X-rays interact with matter with the aim of producing more powerful exotic magnets that could be used in electric cars or new CT scanners.

A team of scientists from Warwick University, the STFC Daresbury Laboratory in Warrington and the Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, have uncovered characteristics of electrons that determine properties such as chemical bonding and the formation of magnetism.

X-rays can pass through solid objects with a degree of loss or absorption depending on the density of the material. The absorption of an X-ray occurs when the X-ray interacts and transfers its energy to an electron or an atom, so measuring the absorption of X-rays can reveal a lot about the state of these electrons and atoms.

Using a property known as the Borrmann effect, the researchers have been able to measure a previously hard-to-identify part of the absorption, the quadrupole absorption component.