University of Tokyo

New Capabilities

Provided the focusing mirror system used in the experiment

In April 2026, a team at the European X-ray free-electron laser near Hamburg squeezed hard X-ray flashes lasting about 300 attoseconds into a spot 180 by 330 nanometres across. Peak intensity passed 10^20 watts per square centimetre, which the authors call a record for an attosecond hard X-ray pulse.

Updated 3 days ago

New Capabilities

As of October 2026: Affiliation of co-author Swati Chaudhary

Two-pole magnets run the modern world. Hard drives, credit-card strips, and refrigerator doors all rely on the familiar north-south dipole. A University of Toronto team has now found a way to see a stranger magnetic state, one that behaves as if it has eight poles and that ordinary instruments cannot detect.

Updated Oct 7