Working laser-powered quantum computers will need a system that can accurately and reliably count and distinguish 50 or more photons every few nanoseconds.
Scientists have developed a new type of lens that focuses an X-ray beam to nanometer levels. The monolithic 2D multilayer Laue lenses (MLLs) can focus an X-ray beam to approximately 10 nanometers. The system overcomes the alignment challenges typically associated with these ultra-high resolution focusing optics. This development was recognized with a Microscopy Today Innovation Award in 2022.
The exotic properties of 2D materials can be manipulated by stacking layers of these materials then modifying them by, for example, applying twists. Researchers have developed a novel microscopy technique to study twisted, layered 2D materials at high spatial resolution using interferometric four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM).
The complexity of microbiomes makes it difficult for scientists to study and predict microbes’ interactions. One solution is to use custom assemblies of microbes called synthetic communities. This study used a four-member community involved in the breakdown of cellulose into the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide to study responses to increases in sulfate due to climate change.
Researchers combined the features of clinical drugs to treat hepatitis C and viruses similar to COVID-19. This allowed them to synthesize BBH-1, a promising inhibitor that targets the breakdown of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The researchers characterized samples using X-ray and neutron diffraction techniques to provide atomic-level insights on the structure of the BBH-1 inhibitor and how it binds to the SARS-CoV-2 protein.
Defects in two-dimensional (2D) materials can give these materials special properties, but analyzing defects for useful variants is time consuming. Researchers developed an automated method to analyze these materials that combines scanning tunneling microscopy with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Microbe-semiconductor biohybrids merge the power of living systems to produce biological products with the ability of semiconductors to harvest light. They use solar energy to convert carbon dioxide into useful chemicals such as bioplastics and biofuels. To better understand how biohybrids work, researchers developed a way to image these biohybrids with single-cell resolution.
Polymers experience changing conditions during manufacturing, which can affect their final properties and performance. The way they react to manufacturing forces can be extremely complex and hard to measure. Researchers combined theory and modeling to characterize melted polymers under steady flow and revealed universal features that can inform the design of advanced materials for manufacturing.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $11.4 million for six projects in quantum information science (QIS) with relevance to fusion and plasma science.
For effective molecular sensing, imaging, and signaling, materials must meet strict crystalline quality requirements. Researchers found an improved way to make high-quality ribbon-shaped nanocrystals that resonate strongly with infrared light. They tested these nanoribbons using a unique, ultrabroadband infrared probe and found the highest quality reported for such materials to date. This quality makes the crystals excellent prospects for use in high-performance infrared devices.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science (SC) will support nearly 140 high schoolers, recent high school graduates, and early undergraduate students from underrepresented groups and underserved schools in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through awards for six Pathway Summer Schools at six national laboratories.
Predictions based on the Standard Model of particle physics don’t always agree with what scientists see in experimental data. One way to examine these differences is emissions of neutrinos from nuclear reactors. As part of this research agenda, scientists in the PROSPECT Collaboration have reported the most precise measurement ever of the energy spectrum of antineutrinos emitted from the fission of uranium-235, providing a new reference energy spectrum and new constraints on the origin of the disagreements between data and models.
Conventional sensors usually lack the sensitivity needed for studies of quantum phenomena and other complex cases. One solution is to use superconducting sensors, but amplifying their signals is challenging. Researchers built on advances from quantum computing to add a special type of amplifiers, superconducting traveling-wave parametric amplifiers, to superconducting sensors. These amplifiers are almost noiseless and operate at relatively high temperatures.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $137 million in funding for 80 projects in high energy physics. The scope of the research spans the full gamut of topics in experimental and theoretical high energy physics.
In a plant microbiome, the microbial community assembles and changes by exchanging signals between the host plant and the microbes. Researchers have gathered and filtered a large amount of data using a combination of computational approaches to identify new mechanisms in this signaling process. The study discovered a host transport mechanism and a chemical signal that influences beneficial bacterial colonization of plants’ roots.
Applications are currently being accepted for the Summer 2024 term of the DOE Office of Science’s Visiting Faculty Program (VFP). The application deadline is January 9, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. ET.
Applications are currently being accepted for the Summer 2024 term of two undergraduate internship programs offered by the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science: the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) program and the Community College Internships (CCI) program. The application deadline is January 9, 2024, at 5:00 p.m. EST.
Lithium-ion batteries are useful for electric vehicles but use raw materials that are costly and face potential supply chain issues. The performance of one alternative, sodium-ion batteries, declines rapidly with repeated charges and discharges.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of the High Performance Data Facility (HPDF) hub, which will create a new scientific user facility specializing in advanced infrastructure for data-intensive science. The Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) will be the HPDF Hub Director and the lead infrastructure will be located at JLab.
The nuclear reactions that power stellar explosions involve short-lived nuclei that are hard to study in the laboratory. Researchers used a combination of methods to measure a reaction where a neutron from a deuterium target is exchanged with a proton from a radioactive projectile, a reaction equivalent to a process in exploding stars.
Researchers have discovered a way to tune some semiconductors to reduce the amount of energy needed to eject electrons. The approach works by placing a bilayer coating of an insulator and graphene on top of the semiconductor then applying a voltage between the semiconductor and graphene. This bilayer approach could improve the efficiency of electromechanical devices and electron accelerators.
For the first time, scientists have direct evidence of an exotic state of ice that may form inside Uranus, Neptune, and other water-rich gas giants due to extreme temperatures and pressures.
Researchers mapped the locations of 1,034 proteins inside the chloroplast of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas. This map is a spatial atlas of the chloroplast proteome—all of the proteins that the organism can produce in the algae’s structure that drives photosynthesis.
Using a combination of experimental facilities, researchers directly measured a key reaction that takes place in the explosions on the surfaces of neutron stars. This is the first-ever measurement of this reaction. Contrary to expectation, the experimental data agreed with predictions from a common theoretical model used to calculate reaction rates.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $16 million in funding for nine projects that are focused on advancing innovative fusion technology and collaborative research on small-scale experiments and on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, an Office of Science scientific user facility. The projects will be executed under 16 awards at 13 institutions across the nation.
When a muon binds with a deuteron, it forms a system with two neutrons in a process analogous to proton-proton fusion. Nuclear theorists examined this muon capture process to quantify theoretical uncertainty relevant for comparison with experimental data and to test predictions involving proton-proton fusion. The study supports ongoing efforts to enhance the accuracy of muon capture measurements and to apply the same theoretical framework to other processes.
The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Science has selected 60 graduate students representing 26 states for the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program’s 2023 Solicitation 1 cycle. Through world-class training and access to state-of-the-art facilities and resources at DOE National Laboratories, SCGSR prepares graduate students to enter jobs of critical importance to the DOE mission and secures our national position at the forefront of discovery and innovation.
Theorists have successfully calculated the “heavy quark diffusion coefficient,” which describes how quickly a melted soup of quarks and gluons transfers its momentum to heavy quarks. The results show this transfer is very fast—at the limit of what quantum mechanics will allow.
Registration is open for the 34th National Science Bowl® (NSB), hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Thousands of students compete in the contest annually as it has grown into one of the largest academic math and science competitions in the country.
Flat lithium-metal coin cell batteries combine solid and liquid components in a way that makes it difficult to see how they fail. In this study, scientists froze a battery, cut it open with a super-fast laser, and took pictures of the interacting components at the microscopic scale.
Catalysts are key to turning carbon dioxide into useful fuel products such as hydrocarbons, but most catalysts for this process are either costly or require large amounts of energy. A team of researchers investigated a catalyst made of di-tungsten carbide.
Some types of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations are so complex they strain even supercomputers. To speed these calculations, researchers developed MemHC, an optimized memory framework.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced up to $500 million in funding for basic research in support of DOE’s clean energy, economic, and national security goals.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $264 million in funding for 29 projects to develop solutions for the scientific challenges underlying DOE’s Energy Earthshots™ Initiative to advance clean energy technologies within the decade. The funding will support 11 new Energy Earthshot Research Centers led by DOE National Laboratories and 18 university research teams addressing one or more of the Energy Earthshots™ that are focused on six different areas, including industrial decarbonization, carbon storage, and offshore wind. The Department launched the Energy Earthshots Initiative to spur decarbonization efforts that will help the United States meet President Biden’s ambitious climate and clean energy goals, including a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $5 million in funding for six projects that will increase the use and utility of DOE research to improve climate resilience, particularly in vulnerable communities, in conjunction with the White House Summit on Building Climate Resilient Communities.
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced today that it is accepting nominations from the DOE national laboratories for the department’s Distinguished Scientist Fellows Program.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $30 million in funding for three projects to increase scientific productivity and discoveries across DOE light source, neutron source, and high-performance computing and networking facilities.
Scientists are interested in improving the stability of mixed halide-perovskites as the basis for less expensive solar cells. Current methods of making these materials produce structural defects due to rapid and unequal crystallization when the material forms. Researchers have now reported a new way to make perovskites that have fewer defects and improved stability.
Electrons can display interference effects like waves in the ocean, but this happens on extremely fast time scales. In this study, scientists observed the quantum mechanical motion of electrons in an excited molecule using an “attoclock,” which measures electron motion with a precision of hundreds of attoseconds. The experiment advances the study of electron dynamics and will improve understanding of molecular physics and quantum chemistry.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of organic molecules that scientists believe are responsible for chemical processes that eventually lead to soot and carbonaceous nanoparticles on Earth and in space. However, scientists do not fully understand the role of reactions involving two free radicals in how PAHs form in extreme environments.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $5.8 million in funding for five projects in nuclear data for basic nuclear science and applications.
Researchers have discovered that applying plastic deformation to the quantum material strontium titanate causes defects (known as dislocations) to organize themselves into repeating structures. These changes lead to improvements of strontium titanate’s superconducting and ferroelectric properties.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $73 million in funding for eleven projects which focus on the goal of accelerating the transition from discovery to commercialization of new technologies that will form the basis of future industries.
Quantum materials’ properties arise from the interaction of their electrons and atomic nuclei. Researchers can observe these interactions as they happen using ultrafast X-ray or electron beam pulses.
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $112.4 million in funding for 10 research projects for the Biopreparedness Research Virtual Environment (BRaVE) initiative. These projects will support national biopreparedness and response capabilities that can be advanced with DOE’s distinctive capabilities.
Researchers seeking to improve the use of radium-223 to target cancer cells investigated how the isotope interacts with two chelators, macropa and DOTA. Experiments and computer-driven models discovered that macropa is the strongest chelator for binding radium identified so far.
Splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen is a key process for energy storage. The chemical transitions involved in splitting water require energy, so researchers are designing more efficient new electrodes with energy saving catalytic properties.
Scientists have observed a rare new radioactive decay mode for the first time. In this decay mode, oxygen-13 (with eight protons and five neutrons) decays by breaking into three helium nuclei (an atom without the surrounding electrons), a proton, and a positron (the antimatter version of an electron) following beta decay. The findings expand scientific knowledge of decay processes and the properties of the nucleus before the decay.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $29 million in funding for seven team awards for research in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data resources for fusion energy sciences.
Comparing experimental results and theoretical calculations can be difficult for quantum materials. One solution is to use sample materials that isolate and emphasize an atomic line with one dimensional properties. In this study, scientists grew thin films of layered copper-oxygen materials to experimentally test theories of electron interaction in quantum materials. The study indicates that standard theory is not sufficient and requires a new term to fit the experimental data.
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