Ultra-fast alchemy: A new strategy to synthesise super-dense nanomaterials

This project will develop further our new strategy for producing new super-dense material phases, predicted to exist theoretically but not experimentally confirmed yet, by ultrafast laser induced microexplosion. These studies at previously unachievable, record-high heating and quenching rates will provide a deeper insight into the fundamentals of material behaviour under extreme conditions. The unique approach, which has already led us to the discovery of a new superdense phase of aluminium, will deliver underpinning knowledge, prominent training to young researchers, and will have a profound interdisciplinary impact as an inexpensive and fast synthesis of a large variety of new super-dense nanomaterials for industrial applications.