Science Headlines | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)

Scanning electron microscopy image of the micro-structure of albite prior to the rapid compression experiments.

Simulating Meteorite Impacts in the Lab

A U.S.-German research team has simulated meteorite impacts in the lab and followed the resulting structural changes in two feldspar minerals with x-rays as they happened.

Physicists Jonathan Jara-Almonte, right, and Hantao Ji, coauthor and adviser.

Confirming a Little-understood Source of the Process Behind Northern Lights and the Formation of Stars

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have now produced the first fully kinetic model of the behavior of plasma particles and found that fast reconnection can indeed occur in partially ionized systems.

Argonne is working with other DOE national laboratories on the planned Electron Ion Collider, which will probe how subatomic quarks (shown here in red, blue and green) interact through the exchange of gluons (shown as wiggly helices). (Image courtesy of Shutterstock.)

Argonne Expertise Contributes to the Foundation for Future Electron-ion Collider

The conventional picture of an atom’s interior seems pretty straightforward, with electrons orbiting a closely-packed nucleus of protons and neutrons. Within the individual protons and neutrons that make up the nucleus, however, there is a more complex story — one that is driving scientists from around the world to plan one of the most ambitious collaborative experiments in nuclear physics.

Pete Peterson, Andrei Savici, and Wenduo Zhou, all software scientists with the Neutron Sciences Directorate’s Spallation Neutron Source, have conducted experiments showing the effectiveness of event-based data collection for materials research. Image Credit: ORNL/Genevieve Martin

Event-based Data Collection Enriches Neutron Scattering Research and New Product Development

Scientists using neutron scattering methods to look at the behavior of materials under stress or during phase changes and chemical reactions can view processes from new angles using event-based data. Understanding phase changes and chemical reactions is vital to the design of next-gen consumer products such as better batteries, more powerful electronic devices, cars with improved fuel efficiency, and safer, more effective medical applications.

ORNL astrophysicist Raph Hix models the inner workings of supernovae on the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

Ralph Hix: Modeling the Origin Story of the Elements

Hix and other ORNL astrophysicists construct models using state-of-the-art supercomputers to simulate the collapse and explosion of massive stars more than ten times the mass of our sun and understand how supernovae create new chemical elements through a process known as nucleosynthesis.

Argonne nanoscientist Martin Holt took X-ray images of the acoustic wave through the use of the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe at the Center for Nanoscale Materials and Advanced Photon Source, both U.S. Department of Energy User Facilities at Argonne National Laboratory. (Image courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory.)

Sound Waves Let Quantum Systems 'Talk' to One Another

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago have invented an innovative way for different types of quantum technology to “talk” to each other using sound.

Brookhaven Lab's Computational Science Initiative recently formed a new Quantum Computing Group as one of the many ways it's expanding its efforts in quantum information science. The group members are (left to right) Meifeng Lin, Dimitrios Katramatos, Eden Figueroa, Michael McGuigan, Yao-Lung (Leo) Fang, and Layla Hormozi. Lin and Hormozi are co-leading the group.

Quantum Information Science Effort Expands at Brookhaven Lab

The Computational Science Initiative is building its staff, capabilities, and programs in this emerging research area expected to revolutionize science and other fields.

The cryo-EM structure of the NAD(P)H dehydrogenase-like complex (NDH). The atomic coordinate model shown as spheres, colored according to the different subunits, in front of an electron micrograph of frozen NDH particles in the background

New Molecular Blueprint Advances Our Understanding of Photosynthesis

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have used one of the most advanced microscopes in the world to reveal the structure of a large protein complex crucial to photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into cellular energy.

Schematic of system studied; positively charged lanthanide ions (blue circles) dissolve in the water, while the negatively charged surfactant molecules (purple) float on the water surface. (b) Data showing how density of ions at the surfactant surface jumps as the concentration of ions in the bulk water increases (Er=erbium, a heavier lanthanide, Nd=neodymium, a lighter lanthanide). The lines thru data are predictions from computer simulations. From M. Miller et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 058001 (2019).

Illuminating a Key Industrial Process

Results of research carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Photon Source (APS) may pave the way to improvements in industrial processes based on solvent extraction, which is used in the mining and refinement of technologically important rare earths.

By employing ultra-short mid-infrared and terahertz pulses of less than one trillionth of a second, researchers at Ames Laboratory were able to successfully isolate and control the surface properties of a bismuth-selenium (Bi2Se3) 3D topological insulator.

Laser Pulses Light the Way to Tuning Topological Materials for Spintronics and Quantum Computing

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered a means of controlling the surface conductivity of a three-dimensional (3D) topological insulator, a type of material that has potential applications in spintronic devices and quantum computing.

January 10, 2019 x Novel colloidal quantum dots are formed of an emitting cadmium/selenium (Cd/Se) core enclosed into a compositionally graded CdxZn1-xSe shell wherein the fraction of zinc versus cadmium increases towards the dot's periphery. Due to a directionally asymmetric lattice mismatch between CdSe and ZnSe, the core, at top right, is compressed more strongly perpendicular to the crystal axis than along it. This leads to modifications of the electronic structure of the CdSe core, which beneficially affects its light-emission properties. Bottom image: Experimental traces of emission intensity from a conventional quantum dot (upper panel) and a novel asymmetrically compressed quantum dot (lower panel) resolved spectrally and temporally. The emission from the conventional quantum dot shows strong spectral fluctuations (“spectral jumps” and “spectral diffusion”). The emission from the asymmetrically compressed quantum dots is highly stable in both intensity and spectral domains. In addition, it shows a much narrower linewidth, which is below the room-temperature thermal energy (25 meV).

More Stable Light Comes From Intentionally 'Squashed' Quantum Dots

New research at Los Alamos National Laboratory suggests that the strained colloidal quantum dots represent a viable alternative to presently employed nanoscale light sources, and they deserve exploration as single-particle, nanoscale light sources for optical “quantum” circuits, ultrasensitive sensors and medical diagnostics.

As lithium ions travel quickly between the electrodes of a battery, they can form inactive layers of lithium metal in a process called lithium plating. This image shows the beginning of the plating process on the graphene anode of a lithium-ion battery. (Image courtesy of Robert Horn/Argonne National Laboratory.)

Researchers Use X-rays to Understand the Flaws of Battery Fast Charging

While gas tanks can be filled in a matter of minutes, charging the battery of an electric car takes much longer. To level the playing field and make electric vehicles more attractive, scientists are working on fast-charging technologies.