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Materials Science
Maximizing pressure in laser-driven shock experiments
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the University of California, San Diego have tested two alternative tamper materials, yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) and gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG), for their potential use in laser-driven shock experiments. Tamper materials, also called confining media, are placed on the surface of a target during laser…
Five LLNL postdocs selected to attend 2025 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
Five Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) postdoctoral researchers have been selected to participate in the prestigious 2025 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Ian Colliard, Nicholas Cross, Caspar Donnison, Vidia Gokool and Jonas Kaufman will join young scientists from around the world to learn from Nobel Prize laureates through academic panels, lectures, group…
Depositing dots on corrugated chips improves photodetector capabilities
Near-infrared photodetectors are used in biomedical sensing and defense and security technologies. For enhanced performance and integrated, compact imaging systems, the photodetectors must be able to detect multiple wavelengths of light at once on a single chip. Quantum dots — tiny crystals made of semiconducting material — could present a path forward because different…
Nuclear chemistry research gets an efficiency boost
Heavy actinides — elements at the bottom of the periodic table, after plutonium — are radioactive, rare and chemically complex, making them notoriously difficult to study. Most studies conducted on these elements have traditionally been done one-compound-at-a-time or extrapolated from less toxic and non-radioactive surrogates, like lanthanides, that are safer to work with…
LLNL intern shapes the understanding of ceramics
Doctoral student Natalie Yaw came to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as a summer intern. But when her time at the Laboratory ended, her work did not. She took the lead to write a paper based on her findings, and the result was published in Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers. As a Department of Energy Nuclear Energy University Program fellow, Yaw chose to intern at…
Simulating hot-spot formation in insensitive high explosives
When high explosives are subjected to sudden shock waves, such as from an impact or detonation, tiny regions of intense heat — called hot spots — form at microstructural defects such as pores. These hot spots play a critical role in determining whether the explosive will initiate and fully detonate. Understanding how hot spots form and behave across length scales is key to…
Probing deflagration to better understand detonation
Suddenly, there’s a flash of intense light and heat, followed by a rapidly expanding fireball. Combustion of high explosives is everywhere in popular culture, and it's also critical for ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. stockpile. While detonations often get all the credit in combustion, deflagrations — their subsonic, less famous precursors — are also…
LLNL’s Aleksandr Noy named 2025 Materials Research Society fellow
Aleksandr Noy, a senior research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has been named a 2025 fellow of the Materials Research Society (MRS). The fellowship recognizes sustained contributions and dedication to the advancement of materials research and is a lifetime recognition of distinction in the field. The committee recognized Noy for his “seminal…
Lithium hydride for advanced technologies
A group of materials scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have made significant progress in developing a scalable and efficient method to produce dense lithium hydride (LiH), a material with immense potential for use in nuclear fusion, long-term human space travel, and thermal energy storage. In nuclear fusion, LiH has the potential to serve as a…
Mimicking nature’s biological membrane channels
Researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the University of Washington (UW) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have successfully designed and tested de novo (from the beginning) synthetic protein channels that mimic the natural precision of biological membrane pores. Their research, appearing on the front cover of the January 2025 issue…
Order to disorder: a closer look at icy surfaces
Much like a tongue freezes to a frigid metal pole, ice can cause speed up the adsorption, or stickiness, of molecules. An icy surface can also cause molecules to degrade in the presence of light, releasing trace gases. Before researchers can measure these reactions and incorporate their impacts in global atmospheric models, researchers first need to understand the…
Sizing up the ever-elusive neutrino
About 100 trillion neutrinos are passing through your body at this very second. The particles are the second most abundant form of matter in the universe (behind light), but they interact very, very rarely. That property makes them ideal objects for studying the fundamentals of quantum mechanics; however, it also complicates measurements. For example, neutrinos were…
Breaking down corrosion to predict failure and design stronger materials
You’ve seen the movie scene: dilapidated skyscrapers, collapsed bridges, and empty, shell-like cars in a post-apocalyptic city. While Hollywood imagines fictional causes for this decay, in reality, the culprit is far more mundane: corrosion. Corrosion costs trillions of dollars globally, with up to three percent of the U.S. GDP spent on failing materials. New research from…
Four LLNL teams to attend Energy I-Corps Cohort 20
In a record setting year for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), four teams of LLNL researchers will attend the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy I-Corps (EIC) Cohort 20 this spring. The EIC is a key initiative of the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions, and facilitated at LLNL by Hannah Farquar from the Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO). Established…
New program aims to fast-track energetic materials education for researchers
More than 80 physicists, chemists, material scientists and engineers participated in a new educational program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) during 2024, developed and delivered by the Lab’s energetic materials experts. As hiring at LLNL accelerated in recent years, Lab leaders recognized the growing need to provide specialized training for newer members…
LLNL researchers quantify metal strength uncertainty in high-explosives models
For the first time, a team of researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) quantified and rigorously studied the effect of metal strength on accurately modeling coupled metal/high explosive (HE) experiments, shedding light on an elusive variable in an important model for national security and defense applications. The team used a Bayesian approach to…
Identifying material properties for more efficient solid-state batteries
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have developed a novel, integrated modeling approach to identify and improve key interface and microstructural features in complex materials typically used for advanced batteries. The work helped unravel the relationship between material microstructure and key properties and better predict how those properties…
LLNL creates world’s brightest X-ray source with NIF and novel metal foams
By combining the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser and ultra-light metal foams, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have produced the brightest X-ray source to date — about twice as bright as previous solid metal versions. These ultra-bright high-energy X-rays can be used to image and study extremely dense matter, like the plasmas created…
LLNL’s computationally designed alloys capture best paper of the year award
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have been recognized with the Journal of Alloys and Compounds’ 2024 best paper award for their publication, “Microstructural, phase, and thermophysical stability of CrMoNbV refractory multi-principal element alloys.” The paper examines alloys that have the potential to operate at high temperatures, a feature that…
Nanobubble formation observed during water electrolysis
Water electrolysis is a critical technology for producing hydrogen and is expected to play an important role in decarbonizing the global economy. With the manufacturing capacity of hydrogen expected to increase to approximately 130 gigawatts a year by 2030 (just one gigawatt equals 100 million LED bulbs), water electrolysis must perform at peak efficiency. As water…
