An 170-year-old law describing the ratio of heat conductivity to electronic conductivity in metals was thought not to apply to quantum materials. Now theoretical physicists suggest that the Wiedemann-Franz law does, in fact, apply to one class of quantum materials -- the copper oxides, or cuprates.
Far from being stiff and pointy, a coronavirus’s infectious spikes are shaped like chicken drumsticks with the meaty part facing out, and the meaty part can tilt every which way on its slender stalk. A tiny hinge makes that bendiness possible, and scientists say disabling that hinge could be a good way to thwart infection.
The team reduced the amount of expensive platinum group metals needed to make an effective cell and found a new way to test future fuel cell innovations.
The future of experimental particle physics is exciting – and energy intensive. SLAC physicists are thinking about how to make one proposal, the Cool Copper Collider, more sustainable.
The American Physical Society recognized the SLAC and Stanford physicist for decades of groundbreaking work studying the strange behavior of electrons at the interfaces between materials.
The Secretary and other U.S. Department of Energy officials spent an afternoon touring SLAC’s energy labs, the superconducting-accelerator-powered Linac Coherent Light Source, and the Legacy Survey of Space and Time Camera. At a celebratory gathering, they commended staff for their vision and dedication in bringing LCLS-II “first light” to fruition.
LaserNetUS funding will allow scientists to take advantage of the Matter in Extreme Conditions instrument and ultrabright X-rays at the Linac Coherent Light Source to explore fundamental plasma science and inertial fusion energy research and technology.
Developing a new, light-activated method to produce the molecule opens doors for future biomedical applications.
New research focused on the quantum structure of elements under extreme conditions has implications for understanding Earth's evolution, interpreting unusual seismic signals, and even the study of exoplanets for insights into habitability.
Proving the technique works puts scientists one step closer to unraveling the mysteries of hydrogen transfers.
Researchers have discovered that linear defects can propagate through a material faster than sound waves do. This gives scientists a new appreciation of the damage they might do to a broad range of materials in extreme conditions
A materials scientist who specializes in superconductors, Sarrao brings a deep background in national lab leadership and the evolution of SLAC science.
Three SLAC scientists explain what they do to ensure the world's largest digital camera for astronomy is ready for the big time.
Powerful X-rays generated at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory help researchers shed new light on feather evolution.
The newly upgraded Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory successfully produced its first X-rays, and researchers around the world are already lined up to kick off an ambitious science program.
Jim Sebek, an electrical engineer and physicist at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, will receive this year’s Farrel W. Lytle Award for countless contributions towards building, maintaining and operating the synchrotron for nearly four decades.
Looking at X-ray movies with computer vision gives researchers an incredible new view of how nanoparticles in a lithium-ion battery electrode work during charging and discharging.
Researchers with the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and other institutions have been awarded $12 million in funding to help accelerate society’s response to emerging pathogens by improving X-ray science technology and processes.
Angel Garcia-Esparza wins 2023 Spicer Young Investigator Award for studying catalysts in action. The award is part of SLAC SSRL's annual users' meeting in September.
Researchers used diamond mirrors to guide X-ray laser pulses around a rectangular racetrack inside a vacuum chamber. It’s an important step toward developing cavity-based X-ray free-electron lasers, or CBXFELs, to make X-ray laser pulses brighter and cleaner – more like regular lasers are today.
After more than a decade of work, electrons are now flying through a new superconducting accelerator at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, preparing to power the world’s most powerful X-ray free electron laser. This project – named the Linac Coherent Light Source II (LCLS-II) – is now steps away from releasing X-ray flashes that will open a new era in scientific research at that atomic level.
At particle accelerator facilities around the world, scientists rely on powerful X-rays to reveal the structure and behavior of atoms and molecules. Now, researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have calculated how to make X-ray pulses at X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) even brighter and more reliable by building a special cavity chamber and diamond mirrors around an XFEL.
Today's catalysts for removing unburnt methane from natural-gas engine emissions are either inefficient at low, start-up temperatures or break down at higher operating temperatures. A new single-atom catalyst solves both these problems and removes 90% of the methane.
Researchers at SLAC and Stanford found a way to make thin films of an exciting new nickel oxide superconductor that are free of extended defects. This improved the material’s ability to conduct electricity with no loss and revealed that it’s more like superconducting cuprates than previously thought.
When you look at a painting in a museum, the colors that you see are likely less bright than they were originally, something that had previously been attributed mainly to light exposure. Now, researchers have discovered a new cause of color degradation: humidity.
Batteries come in many shapes and sizes, but their materials can be hard to source. SLAC researchers are trying to build them with more abundant and ethically mined elements.
After years of pioneering work, researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have completed the detector towers that will soon sit at the heart of the SuperCDMS SNOLAB dark matter detection experiment.
Researchers at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory captured one of the fastest movements of a molecule called ferricyanide for the first time by combining two ultrafast X-ray spectroscopy techniques. They think their approach could help map more complex chemical reactions like oxygen transportation in blood cells or hydrogen production using artificial photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining life on Earth, yet many aspects of the process remain a mystery. One such mystery is how Photosystem II, a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water, producing the oxygen we breathe. Now researchers from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, together with collaborators from Uppsala University and Humboldt University and other institutions have succeeded in cracking a key secret of Photosystem II.
Whenever SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s linear accelerator is on, packs of around a billion electrons each travel together at nearly the speed of light through metal piping. These electron bunches form the accelerator’s particle beam, which is used to study the atomic behavior of molecules, novel materials and many other subjects.
The Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University today announced the launch of a new joint battery center at SLAC. It will bring together the resources and expertise of the national lab, the university and Silicon Valley to accelerate the deployment of batteries and other energy storage solutions as part of the energy transition that’s essential for addressing climate change.
The SLAC-Stanford team pulled hydrogen directly from ocean waters. Their work could help efforts to generate low-carbon fuel for electric grids, cars, boats and other infrastructure.
A new study probing the structure and evolution of galaxy clusters shows good agreement with the predictions of standard cosmological models.
Researchers have designed a molecule that slows the effects of one of SARS-CoV-2's more dangerous components – an enzyme called a protease that cuts off the immune system's communications and helps the virus replicate. While much more needs to happen to develop a drug, scientists can begin to imagine what that drug could look like – thanks to new images of the molecule bound to the protease.
SLAC researcher Sadasivan Shankar talks about a new environmental effort starting at the lab – building a roadmap that will help researchers improve the energy efficiency of computing, from devices like cellphones to artificial intelligence.
The resulting distortions are 'huge' compared to those in other materials, and represent the first demonstration of the Jahn-Teller effect in a layered material with a flat, planar lattice, like a high-rise building with evenly spaced floors.
Lance Dixon, professor of particle physics and astrophysics at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University, will receive the 2023 Galileo Galilei Medal for his contributions to theoretical physics. The award was announced by the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) on Feb. 15 – the 459th birthday of Galileo.
If scaled up successfully, the team's new system could help answer questions about certain kinds of superconductors and other unusual states of matter.
A landmark study by researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University reveals how a tiny cellular machine called TRiC directs the folding of tubulin, a human protein that is the building block of microtubules that serve as the cell’s scaffolding and transport system.
A polymer-based electrolyte makes for batteries that keep working – and don’t catch fire – when heated to over 140 degrees F.
Chi-Chang Kao has decided to return to research after serving 10 years as director of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He will continue in the lab director role until a replacement is found.
Blaine Mooers, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, has won this year’s Farrel W. Lytle Award for advancing synchrotron science and RNA editing research at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The annual award recognizes dedicated staff members and users of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), a DOE Office of Science user facility.
Until now, scientists have wondered whether some AMG proteins play a role in critical soil processes, like carbon cycling. To find out more about soil AMGs, researchers determined the atomic structure of a protein that is expressed by a particular AMG.
An enormous vat of pure liquid xenon will help scientists at SLAC and around the globe learn more about the universe.
Fan’s X-ray crystallography work at SLAC’s synchrotron moves us closer to a more protective coronavirus vaccine and a better understanding of how vital materials flow in and out of cells.
Over the past two years, scientists have studied the SARS-CoV-2 virus in great detail, laying the foundation for developing COVID-19 vaccines and antiviral treatments. Now, for the first time, scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have seen one of the virus’s most critical interactions, which could help researchers develop more precise treatments.
A new study has found that “diamond rain,” a long-hypothesized exotic type of precipitation on ice giant planets, could be more common than previously thought. In an earlier experiment, researchers mimicked the extreme temperatures and pressures found deep inside ice giants Neptune and Uranus and, for the first time, observed diamond rain as it formed.
En route to record-breaking X-rays, SLAC’s Cryogenic team built a helium-refrigeration plant that lowers the LCLS-II accelerator to superconducting temperatures.
SLAC works with two small businesses to adapt its pioneering software, ACE3P, for scientific computing and manufacturing design. The goal: to make using DOE supercomputers easier and more efficient.
To capture as much information as possible about clouds of atoms at the heart of the MAGIS-100 experiment, SLAC scientists devised a dome of mirrors that gathers more light from more angles.
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