news 2017

LMU researchers have, for the first time, measured the lifetime of an excited state in the nucleus of an unstable element. This is a major step toward a nuclear clock that could keep even better time than today's best atomic timekeepers. Atomic clocks are the most precise chronometers we now have. These timekeepers are based on precise knowledge of the frequency of specific transitions between defined energy levels in the electron shells of certain atoms.

Based on a study of the optical properties of novel ultrathin semiconductors, LMU researchers have developed a method for rapid and efficient characterization of these materials. Chemical compounds based on elements that belong to the so-called transition metals can be processed to yield atomically thin two-dimensional crystals consisting of a monolayer of the composite in question.