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

Schematic of a plasma wakefield accelerator using optical laser beams and electron driver, escort, and witness beams for generating bright, coherent X-ray laser beams with attosecond duration and sub-Angstrom wavelength.

Ice-Cold Plasma Electron Beams Prepare to Power Future Hard X-ray Laser Beams

Scientists chart a path to sub-femtosecond hard X-ray Free-Electron-Laser pulses powered by compact plasma-based accelerators.

This image shows a snapshot of the order parameter in a fluctuating quark gluon liquid. Green regions are in the quark gluon phase, blue regions in the hadron phase.

Simulating a Critical Point in Quark Gluon Fluid

Recent advances enable simulations near a possible critical endpoint of the transition between the quark gluon plasma and a hadron liquid.

A simulation of a rapidly accreting white dwarf showing a proposed site for the intermediate (i) process and the Summing NaI (SuN) detector. The research studied the 139Ba+n reaction, constrained by the beta decay of 140Cs into 140Ba.

Nuclear Physics Experiment Helps Identify Conditions for a New Astrophysical Process

New nuclear physics measurements shed light on the synthesis of heavy elements in stars.

Team members pose in the clean room (left). Thermal image of the 10.4 kW uranium-238 beam on the target (top right). Three never-before-seen isotopes, shown to the right of the red line on the particle identification plot (bottom right).

Scientists Accelerate Uranium Beam with Record Power

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams opens a new research avenue and observes three new rare isotopes.

The Compton polarimeter’s laser system, used to measure electrons’ parallel spin, is aligned during the Calcium Radius Experiment in Hall A of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.

Laser-Sharp Look at Spinning Electrons Sets the Stage for New Physics Discoveries

Nuclear physicists shatter a nearly 30-year-old record for the measurement of parallel spin within an electron beam.

Photograph of an optically trapped microparticle in high vacuum. The microparticle is visible as a white dot levitated between two lenses, which are used to focus and collect the invisible infrared laser light used to trap the particle.

Detecting the “Kick” from a Single Nuclear Decay

Scientists have detected nuclear decay by observing the recoil of a dust-sized particle when a single nucleus within it decays.

Two examples of silicon photoelectrodes. Left: Micropillar silicon with cobalt catalysts reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) to methanol (CH3OH). Right: Porous silicon with rhenium catalysts reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) to carbon monoxide (CO).

For Solar Fuels, More Surface Area on Photoelectrodes Makes a Difference

High-surface area silicon improves light-driven reactions of carbon dioxide.

Scanning tunneling microscope map of a device made of three atomic layers of graphene. The contrast reveals the wavefunction of a chiral interface state (bright stripe) between two insulating regions having opposite chirality (dark color sides).

Chiral Asymmetry Creates a Path to High-Efficiency Future Electronics

Scientists learn how to manipulate quantum properties in graphene to create resistance-free, electricity channels for loss-free future electronics.

This image shows (a) the Nature magazine cover; (b) the single atom X-ray mechanism; (c) a supramolecular ring with one iron atom; (d) X-ray spectra of one iron atom; (e) a terbium dimer complex; (f) the X-ray spectra of one terbium atom.

For the First Time, Scientists X-Ray a Single Atom

Synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy allows atom-level examination of iron and terbium atoms.

Color map of the differential conductance as a function of increasing magnetic field (x axis) in niobium deposited on 2D molybdenum ditelluride (MoTe2). The red spikes are oscillations of the MoTe2 edge supercurrent due to magnetic field flux.

Superconductivity Is Unpredictable at the Edge

Two types of superconductivity compete at the edge between a topological semimetal and a conventional metal, causing the electrons to switch behavior erratically.

Artist’s representation of gene expression in mycorrhizae-colonized roots as obtained by the combination of single-cell and spatial gene expression analyses.

Researchers Use a New Two-Dimensional Analysis to Build a Map of Gene Expression in Plant-Fungi Interactions

Spatial transcriptomics, combined with single-cell expression profiling, reveals new information on plant/arbuscular mycorrhizal interactions.

This electron microscope image shows spherical bismuth powder. Each particle in the photo is about the diameter of a human hair (approximately 60 micrometers).

Spherical Powders Enable New Applications for Metals

Free-flowing metal powders offer improvements for additive manufacturing, isotope production target fabrication, and more.