Attention, the electron is too fast!

1/3 images Measuring a squickly as possible It's all about speed - if you are trying to take a photo of something fast, or measure magnetic material properties It's all about speed - if you are trying to take a photo of something fast, or measure magnetic material properties - Why do different measurements of material properties sometimes give different results? A research team led by the TU Vienna has now found an important answer. It is very hard to take a photo of a hummingbird flapping its wings 50 times per second. The exposure time has to be much shorter than the characteristic time scale of the wing beat, otherwise you will only see a colorful blur. A very similar problem is encountered in solid-state physics, where the aim is to determine the magnetic properties of a material. The magnetic moment at a certain location can change very quickly. Therefore, measuring methods are needed which are fast enough to resolve these fluctuations. With this basic idea in mind, scientists at TU Wien (Vienna), in collaboration with research groups from Würzburg (Germany), has now succeeded in solving a puzzle of solid-state physics.