On October 23rd, 2014, the National Synchrotron Light Source II achieved “first light,” the moment when the first X-rays were delivered. Since that moment, the diverse user community, dedicated staff, array of unique beamlines, and illuminating discoveries have only continued to grow. In 2024, NSLS-II celebrate 10 brilliant years since first light and look ahead towards a bright future.
Please find the timeline on NSLS-II website
Editor’s note: The following article was originally issued by Georgia Institute of Technology. National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) beamline scientist Eli Stavitski collaborated with researchers at Georgia Tech to evaluate their novel method of converting lignin, an organic polymer that gives wood and plants their strength, into valuable chemicals using the force of tiny steel balls instead of solvents. Using X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Inner-Shell Spectroscopy (ISS) beamline at NSLS-II, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, the team was able to establish the mechanism of the catalytic process that efficiently breaks the bonds of lignin compounds. For more information on Brookhaven’s role in this research, contact Denise Yazak (dyazak@bnl.gov, 631-344-6371).
Lignin is one of the most plentiful organic polymers on Earth, making up about 20 to 30 percent of the dry mass of wood and other plants.
Despite this abundance, lignin’s complex structure has challenged researchers in breaking it down into useful components that can be used in the sustainable production of chemicals, plastics, and fuels. Therefore, lignin is often discarded as waste during the production of paper and other plant-based products.
However, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed an approach that could transform lignin into valuable chemicals more efficiently than ever before.
The researchers published their findings in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering on using a method known as mechanocatalysis, which uses physical forces, such as vibration or rotation, in a ball mill to drive chemical reactions without the need for solvents, heat, or high pressure.
Carsten Sievers, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, explained that the first step in a lignin biorefinery is depolymerization, which breaks lignin down into small molecules.
“Unfortunately, many depolymerization processes require the use of solvents, and separating the products from solvents, catalysts, and contaminants can be complicated, energy intensive, and leave behind waste,” Sievers said.
“One way to reduce the need for these separation steps is to perform lignin depolymerization in a ball mill where collision with steel balls create environments that enable solid-state reactions without the need for solvents or liquid phases.”
Read more on BNL website
Image: Illustration of a mechanical impact that creates a reactive environment for depolymerization of biomass into value-added chemicals.
The work on excitons, originating from ultrathin materials, could impact future electronics and establishes a new way to study these particles through a powerful instrument at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Schematic showing how exotic particles known as excitons can “hop” between nickel atoms (grey dots) in nickel dihalide materials. The excitons are represented by the red and light-blue orbitals. Credits: Image courtesy of the Comin Laboratory.
Editor’s note: The following article was originally issued by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Jonathan Pelliciari and Valentina Bisogni, beamline scientists at the Soft Inelastic X-ray Scattering (SIX) beamline at the at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, collaborated with researchers from several institutions in this MIT led research into the nature of excitons in magnetic two-dimensional materials. Using resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS), a technique that can only be performed in a few facilities around the world, the team was able to see the microscopic origin of excitons in nickel dihalide, providing insight into the role these particles play in magnetism. Understanding these mechanisms could lead to new nickel-based materials that can be tuned for specific electronic and magnetic properties that could be beneficial in quantum computing applications. MIT is a partner institution of the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA), a National Quantum Information Science Research Center funded by the DOE Office of Science. Brookhaven Lab is the lead institution for C2QA. For more information on Brookhaven’s role in this research, contact Denise Yazak (dyazak@bnl.gov, 631-344-6371).
MIT physicists and colleagues report new insights into exotic particles key to a form of magnetism that has attracted growing interest because it originates from ultrathin materials only a few atomic layers thick. The work, which could impact future electronics and more, also establishes a new way to study these particles through a powerful instrument at the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Among their discoveries, the team has identified the microscopic origin of these particles, known as excitons. They showed how they can be controlled by chemically “tuning” the material, which is primarily composed of nickel. Further, they found that the excitons propagate throughout the bulk material instead of being bound to the nickel atoms.
Finally, they proved that the mechanism behind these discoveries is ubiquitous to similar nickel-based materials, opening the door for identifying — and controlling — new materials with special electronic and magnetic properties.
The open-access results are reported in the July 12 issue of Physical Review X.
“We’ve essentially developed a new research direction into the study of these magnetic two-dimensional materials that very much relies on an advanced spectroscopic method, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS), which is available at Brookhaven National Lab,” says Riccardo Comin, MIT’s Class of 1947 Career Development Associate Professor of Physics and leader of the work. Comin is also affiliated with the Materials Research Laboratory and the Research Laboratory of Electronics.
Comin’s colleagues on the work include Connor A. Occhialini, an MIT graduate student in physics, and Yi Tseng, a recent MIT postdoc now at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY). The two are co-first authors of the Physical Review X paper.
Additional authors are Hebatalla Elnaggar of the Sorbonne; Qian Song, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Physics; Mark Blei and Seth Ariel Tongay of Arizona State University; Frank M. F. de Groot of Utrecht University; and Valentina Bisogni and Jonathan Pelliciari of Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Read more on BNL website
Image: Schematic showing how exotic particles known as excitons can “hop” between nickel atoms (grey dots) in nickel dihalide materials. The excitons are represented by the red and light-blue orbitals.
Credit: Image courtesy of the Comin Laboratory.
UPTON, N.Y. — Longer lasting batteries would allow electric vehicles (EVs) to drive farther and perhaps inspire more people to make the switch from fossil fuels. One key to better EV batteries is understanding the intricate details of how they work — and stop working.
Xiao-Qing Yang, a physicist who leads the Electrochemical Energy Storage group within the Chemistry Division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has spent a good deal of his professional career doing just that. DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) recently recognized his contributions with a Distinguished Achievement Award presented during its 2024 Annual Merit Review. Each year, VTO presents awards to individuals from partner institutions for contributions to overall program efforts and to recognize research, development, demonstration, and deployment achievements in specific areas.
Yang was honored “for pioneering [the use of] advanced characterization tools, such as in situ X-ray diffraction and absorption, to analyze battery materials under operational and extreme conditions in support of VTO battery research and development (R&D) at Brookhaven National Laboratory over the last 38 years.”
Read more on BNL website
Image: Battery chemist Xiao-Qing Yang (left) with colleagues Enyuan Hu and Eli Stavitski at the Inner-Shell Spectroscopy (ISS) beamline of the National Synchrotron Light Source-II at Brookhaven National Laboratory
Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory
UPTON, N.Y. — Chemists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University (SBU), and their collaborators have uncovered new details of the reversible assembly and disassembly of a platinum catalyst. The new understanding may offer clues to the catalyst’s stability and recyclability. The work, described in a paper just published in the journal Nanoscale, reveals how single platinum atoms on a cerium oxide support aggregate under reaction conditions to form active catalytic nanoparticles — and then, surprisingly, fragment once the reaction is stopped.
Fragmentation may sound shattering, but the scientists say it could be a plus.
“Such reversible fragmentation of a platinum nanocatalyst on cerium oxide could be potentially useful for controlling the catalyst’s long-term stability,” said Anatoly Frenkel, a chemist at Brookhaven Lab and professor at SBU who led the research.
When the platinum atoms return to their starting positions, they can be used again to remake active catalytic particles. Plus, the post-reaction fragmentation makes those active particles much less likely to fuse together irreversibly, which is a common mechanism that ultimately deactivates many nanoparticle catalysts.
“Part of the definition of a catalyst is that it helps disassemble and reassemble reacting molecules to form new products,” Frenkel noted. “But it was shocking to see a catalyst that also assembles and disassembles itself in the process.”
The paper describes how the scientists observed the nanoparticles forming as single platinum atoms aggregated on the cerium oxide surface at 572 degrees Fahrenheit (300 degrees Celsius) — the temperature of the reaction they were studying.
“After the reaction, we expected that these nanoparticles would stabilize once back at room temperature in whatever particle size they reached when they were activated,” Frenkel said. “But what we observed was a reverse process. The particles began fragmenting into single atoms again.”
The team had a hypothesis to explain what they were seeing, which was confirmed by thermodynamic calculations performed by theory colleagues at Chungnam National University in Korea. Carbon monoxide, one of the products of the reaction — often considered a “poison” for catalysts — was actively tearing the nanoparticles apart.
“Carbon monoxide molecules have a very strong repulsive interaction when they are next to each other,” Frenkel explained. During the “reverse water gas shift” reaction, which converts carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen (H2) into carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H2O) at high temperatures, the CO typically leaves the catalyst surface as a gas. But once the heat is turned off, the CO molecules bind strongly to the platinum atoms of the catalyst. This brings the CO molecules closer to each other as the system cools down and their numbers rise.
Read more on BNL website
Image: Scientists have shown that platinum atoms (gold spheres) on cerium oxide (red and silver/black surface) can assemble into active nanocatalysts under reaction conditions and then disassemble when cooled down before reuse.
Credit: Valerie Lentz/Brookhaven National Laboratory
New research shines light on the properties and promise of hexagonal boron nitride, a material used in electronic and photonics technologies
EW YORK — Single-photon emitters (SPEs) are akin to microscopic lightbulbs that emit only one photon (a quantum of light) at a time. These tiny structures hold immense importance for the development of quantum technology, particularly in applications such as secure communications and high-resolution imaging. However, many materials that contain SPEs are impractical for use in mass manufacturing due to their high cost and the difficulty of integrating them into complex devices.
In 2015, scientists discovered SPEs within a material called hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). Since then, hBN has gained widespread attention and application across various quantum fields and technologies, including sensors, imaging, cryptography, and computing, thanks to its layered structure and ease of manipulation.
The emergence of SPEs within hBN stems from imperfections in the material’s crystal structure, but the precise mechanisms governing their development and function have remained elusive. Now, a new study published in Nature Materials reveals significant insights into the properties of hBN, offering a solution to discrepancies in previous research on the proposed origins of SPEs within the material. The study involves a collaborative effort spanning three major institutions: the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC); the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) user facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory; and the National Institute for Materials Science. Gabriele Grosso, a professor with the CUNY ASRC’s Photonics Initiative and the CUNY Graduate Center’s Physics program, and Jonathan Pelliciari, a beamline scientist at NSLS-II, led the study.
The collaboration was sparked by a conversation at the annual NSLS-II and Center for Functional Nanomaterials Users’ Meeting when researchers from CUNY ASRC and NSLS-II realized how their unique expertise, skills, and resources could uncover some novel insights, sparking the idea for the hBN experiment. The work brought together physicists with diverse areas of expertise and instrumentation skillsets who rarely collaborate in such a close manner.
Using advanced techniques based on X-ray scattering and optical spectroscopy, the research team uncovered a fundamental energy excitation occurring at 285 millielectron volts. This excitation triggers the generation of harmonic electronic states that give rise to single photons — similar to how musical harmonics produce notes across multiple octaves.
Read more on BNL website
Image: NSLS-II scientists Jiemin Li, Valentina Bisogni, Shiyu Fan, and Jonathan Pelliciari at the SIX beamline
Credit: Kevin Coughlin/Brookhaven National Laboratory
Data from heavy ion collisions give new insight into electromagnetic properties of quark-gluon plasma
UPTON, NY—A new analysis by the STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a particle collider at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, provides the first direct evidence of the imprint left by what may be the universe’s most powerful magnetic fields on “deconfined” nuclear matter. The evidence comes from measuring the way differently charged particles separate when emerging from collisions of atomic nuclei at this DOE Office of Science user facility.
As described in the journal Physical Review X, the data indicate that powerful magnetic fields generated in off-center collisions induce an electric current in the quarks and gluons set free, or deconfined, from protons and neutrons by the particle smashups. The findings give scientists a new way to study the electrical conductivity of this “quark-gluon plasma” (QGP) to learn more about these fundamental building blocks of atomic nuclei.
“This is the first measurement of how the magnetic field interacts with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP),” said Diyu Shen, a STAR physicist from Fudan University in China and a leader of the new analysis. In fact, measuring the impact of that interaction provides direct evidence that these powerful magnetic fields exist.
Scientists have long believed that off-center collisions of heavy atomic nuclei such as gold, also known as heavy ions, would generate powerful magnetic fields. That’s because some of the non-colliding positively charged protons—and neutral neutrons—that make up the nuclei would be set aswirl as the ions sideswipe one another at close to the speed of light.
“Those fast-moving positive charges should generate a very strong magnetic field, predicted to be 1018 gauss,” said Gang Wang, a STAR physicist from the University of California, Los Angeles. For comparison, he noted that neutron stars, the densest objects in the universe, have fields of about 1014 gauss, while refrigerator magnets produce a field of about 100 gauss and our home planet’s protective magnetic field measures a mere 0.5 gauss. “This is probably the strongest magnetic field in our universe.”
But because things happen very quickly in heavy ion collisions, the field doesn’t last long. It dissipates in less than 10-23 seconds—ten millionths of a billionth of a billionth of a second—making it difficult to observe.
So instead of trying to measure the field directly, the STAR scientists looked for evidence of its impact on the particles streaming out of the collisions.
“Specifically, we were looking at the collective motion of charged particles,” Wang said.
Read more on BNL website
Image: Collisions of heavy ions generate an immensely strong electromagnetic field. Scientists investigate traces of this powerful electromagnetic field in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a state where quarks and gluons are liberated from the colliding protons and neutrons.
Credit: Tiffany Bowman and Jen Abramowitz/Brookhaven National Laboratory
UPTON, NY—Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered that adding a layer of magnesium improves the properties of tantalum, a superconducting material that shows great promise for building qubits, the basis of quantum computers. As described in a paper just published in the journal Advanced Materials, a thin layer of magnesium keeps tantalum from oxidizing, improves its purity, and raises the temperature at which it operates as a superconductor. All three may increase tantalum’s ability to hold onto quantum information in qubits.
This work builds on earlier studies in which a team from Brookhaven’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), Brookhaven’s National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), and Princeton University sought to understand the tantalizing characteristics of tantalum, and then worked with scientists in Brookhaven’s Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science (CMPMS) Department and theorists at DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to reveal details about how the material oxidizes.
Those studies showed why oxidation is an issue.
“When oxygen reacts with tantalum, it forms an amorphous insulating layer that saps tiny bits of energy from the current moving through the tantalum lattice. That energy loss disrupts quantum coherence—the material’s ability to hold onto quantum information in a coherent state,” explained CFN scientist Mingzhao Liu, a lead author on the earlier studies and the new work.
While the oxidation of tantalum is usually self-limiting—a key reason for its relatively long coherence time—the team wanted to explore strategies to further restrain oxidation to see if they could improve the material’s performance.
“The reason tantalum oxidizes is that you have to handle it in air and the oxygen in air will react with the surface,” Liu explained. “So, as chemists, can we do something to stop that process? One strategy is to find something to cover it up.”
All this work is being carried out as part of the Co-design Center for Quantum Advantage (C2QA), a Brookhaven-led national quantum information science research center. While ongoing studies explore different kinds of cover materials, the new paper describes a promising first approach: coating the tantalum with a thin layer of magnesium.
Read more on BNL website
Image: Chenyu Zhou, a research associate in the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) at Brookhaven National Laboratory and first author on the study, with Mingzhao Liu (CFN), Yimei Zhu (CMPMS), and Junsik Mun (CFN and CMPMSD), at the DynaCool Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS) in CFN. The team used this tool to make tantalum thin films with and without a protective magnesium layer so they could determine whether the magnesium coating would minimize tantalum oxidation.
Credit: Jessica Rotkiewicz/Brookhaven National Laboratory
The work demonstrates control over key properties leading to better performance.
The following feature story was originally issued by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Adrian Hunt and Iradwikanari Waluyo helped reveal the electronic structure in the surface and bulk of these nanoparticles using depth-sensitive soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) performed at the In situ and Operando Soft X-ray Spectroscopy (IOS) beamline at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. For more information on Brookhaven’s role in this research, contact Denise Yazak (dyazak@bnl.gov, 631-344-6371).
MIT researchers and colleagues have demonstrated a way to precisely control the size, composition, and other properties of nanoparticles key to the reactions involved in a variety of clean energy and environmental technologies. They did so by leveraging ion irradiation, a technique in which beams of charged particles bombard a material.
They went on to show that nanoparticles created this way have superior performance over their conventionally made counterparts.
“The materials we have worked on could advance several technologies, from fuel cells to generate CO2-free electricity to the production of clean hydrogen feedstocks for the chemical industry [through electrolysis cells],” says Bilge Yildiz, leader of the work and a professor in MIT’s departments of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering.
Read more on the BNL website
Image: Artist’s representation of nanoparticles with different compositions created by combining two techniques: metal exsolution and ion irradiation. The different colors represent different elements, such as nickel, that can be implanted into an exsolved metal particle to tailor the particle’s compositions and reactivity.
Credit: Jiayue Wang
Xiao leads the quantum materials program at NSLS-II’s Coherent Hard X-Ray Scattering beamline
My history with the Laboratory goes back to when I was a user at the original National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). I was in graduate school, and my group had our own beamline at NSLS, X1B. I was the person maintaining that beamline, so I came to know many people here.
When I became a postdoc, I decided to join the x-ray scattering group in Brookhaven’s Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science Department because we shared the same research interests and coherent x-ray science was emerging. I joined when the Coherent Soft X-ray Scattering (CSX) beamline at NSLS-II had just achieved first light. I was able to participate in the first experiments there, and that was my postdoc work.
I then took a postdoc position at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and worked more on coherent x-ray science. After three years, I was offered a position at CHX to lead the quantum materials program.
My research, in a broad sense, is in the field of condensed matter physics, looking at quantum materials. These are materials that have behaviors that are very heavily guided by quantum mechanical effects. For example, some have superconducting properties, and some have interesting magnetism. With help from my postdoc, I am looking into discovering new quantum effects in materials, and our work is supported by a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) grant. Apart from my own research, I prepare an environment at CHX for scientists in our community to perform coherent x-ray experiments and study dynamical properties in their materials.
At CHX, we use coherent x-ray photons to track the dynamics inside materials. We can detect electron dynamics as fast as the nanosecond time scale with our recent detector installation. I’m currently trying to detect and study dynamics in materials that take place at that time scale. The ultimate goal is to find a signature of quantum entanglement. This property is a specific type of interaction between electrons; they show very different behavior from electrons in classical materials.
There are some other new capabilities that we are excited for users to experience. We have added a resonance scattering capability to look at element-specific information. For example, we can look at electrons in specific orbitals. We also added low temperature capability with a new cryostat that can chill samples to 4K. That’s very cold, and it will be very useful for studying quantum materials.
Read more on the NSLS-II website
Image: Xiaoqian Chen is a physicist and beamline scientist with the complex scattering program at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. At NSLS-II’s Coherent Hard X-ray Scattering (CHX) beamline, she studies materials with quantum behaviors and guides users in their investigations into quantum materials.
When you use a membrane for water treatment, junk builds up on the membrane surface—a process called fouling—which makes the treatment less efficient. In this work, researchers studied how membranes are fouled by interactions between natural organic matter and positively charged ions (such as calcium cations) that are commonly found in water from dissolved minerals and salts.
“Fouling has been studied since membranes emerged for use in water purification decades ago, but it still remains one of the largest challenges in water treatment,” said the study’s first author, Matthew Landsman, an ALS collaborative postdoctoral fellow from the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Materials for Water and Energy Systems (M-WET), a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC). “Our research aimed to understand the molecular-level mechanisms that influence membrane fouling by natural organic matter so that we can establish design rules for making better membranes.”
After running laboratory fouling experiments on membranes at UT Austin, the team used synchrotron characterization techniques at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) and Brookhaven’s National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) to analyze the surface and bulk compositions of the fouled membranes. At ALS Beamline 7.3.3, wide angle x-ray scattering (WAXS) was used to see if any inorganic contaminants, such as calcium carbonate, were precipitating on the membranes. At NSLS-II, soft and tender x-ray scattering experiments determined the distribution of calcium in the fouling layers.
Read more on the BNL website
Image: Top: Water-treatment facilities use arrays of cylindrical elements containing rolled-up membranes to filter contaminants from water. Bottom inset: In this experiment, such membranes were used to filter water containing ions (reddish spheres) and natural organic matter (green-brown blobs). The fouled membranes were analyzed using various x-ray probes, revealing (for example) how calcium cations form bridges between organic molecules, causing them to aggregate and reduce flow through the membrane.
How well toxic elements leach out of coal ash depends on the ash’s nanoscale composition
Everyone knows that burning coal causes air pollution that is harmful to the climate and human health. But the ash left over can often be harmful as well.
For example, Duke Energy long stored a liquified form of coal ash in 36 large ponds across the Carolinas. That all changed in 2014, when a spill at its Dan River site released 27 million gallons of ash pond water into the local environment. The incident raised concerns about the dangers associated with even trace amounts of toxic elements like arsenic and selenium in the ash. Little was known, however, about just how much of these hazardous materials were present in the ash water or how easily they could contaminate the surrounding environment.
Fears of future spills and seepage caused Duke Energy to agree to pay $1.1 billion to decommission most of its coal ash ponds over the coming years. Meanwhile, researchers are working on better ways of putting the ash to use, such as recycling it to recover valuable rare earth elements or incorporating it into building materials such as concrete. But to put any potential solution into action, researchers still must know which sources of coal ash pose a hazardous risk due to its chemical makeup — a question that scientists still struggle to answer.
In a new paper published June 6 in the journal Environmental Science: Nano, researchers at Duke University have discovered that these answers may remain elusive because nobody is thinking small enough. Using one of the newest, most advanced synchrotron light sources in the world — the National Synchrotron Light Source II at Brookhaven National Laboratory — the authors show that, at least for selenium and arsenic, the amount of toxic elements able to escape from coal ash depends largely on their nanoscale structures.
Read more on the BNL website
Image: Leftover sludge from the 2008 coal ash spill at the Kingston TVA power plant. New research indicates that the nanoscale structure of the coal ash plays a large part in whether or not toxic chemicals can leach into the environment from such events
The Board of Directors of Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA) has named theoretical physicist JoAnne Hewett as the next director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and BSA president. BSA, a partnership between Stony Brook University (SBU) and Battelle, manages and operates Brookhaven Lab for DOE’s Office of Science. Hewett will also hold the title of professor in SBU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and professor at SBU’s C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics.
“JoAnne has a strong research background and extensive experience as a scientist and leader,” said DOE Office of Science Director Asmeret Asefaw Berhe. “She is a great choice to advance the Department of Energy’s priorities at Brookhaven—from fundamental breakthroughs to applications that improve people’s lives each and every day.”
Hewett’s appointment comes after an international search that began in summer 2022. Current Brookhaven Lab Director Doon Gibbs announced in March 2022 his plans to step down after leading the Laboratory for nearly a decade.
Hewett comes to Brookhaven from SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA, where she most recently served as associate lab director (ALD) for fundamental physics and chief research officer. She also is a professor of particle physics and astrophysics at SLAC/Stanford University.
“JoAnne brings vital experience and proven leadership skills to further Brookhaven Lab’s game-changing discoveries and innovative breakthroughs that benefit science and society,” said Maurie McInnis, president, Stony Brook University, and co-chair, BSA Board of Directors. “As Brookhaven advances major projects, expands its mission, and further modernizes its campus where scientists are solving the most urgent challenges of our time, we are pleased to welcome her as the Lab’s next director.”
Read more on the BNL website
Image: JoAnne Hewett
Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
From magnets to power supplies, NSLS-II experts support accelerator upgrades across the Nation.
Each year, thousands of people travel far and wide to see architectural marvels such as the towering steps of the Kukulcán temple in in Chichen Itza or the intricate facade of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany. Like these marvels of history and culture, thousands of researchers travel to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) five light source facilities each year. They don’t come for the views, though, they come to push the boundaries of science—in fields ranging from batteries to pharmaceuticals—by using the ultrabright synchrotron light, mostly x-rays, from these facilities to conduct experiments.
This light doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. It needs to be generated by large, complex particle accelerators. And, to keep the x-rays as bright as possible, scientists and engineers are working constantly to advance them. This story highlights ongoing collaborative projects of the Accelerator Division at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), located at DOE’s Brookhaven Lab.
According to historical sources, it took the Germans over 600 years to build the original Cologne Cathedral, while archeologists speculate that the Temple of Kukulcán took at least 200 years to build in two phases. Thousands of people worked on these monuments during these extremely long construction periods. This is a feat they share with modern particle accelerator projects. While the initial construction of NSLS-II took only a decade, it still involved an international effort of hundreds of people from many disciplines and professions.
From the civil engineering challenges of the building design to the construction of the hundreds of magnets inside the accelerator, it truly takes more than a village to build a particle accelerator for a synchrotron light source. Similarly, many modern accelerator projects span multiple institutions and countries to leverage the expertise in the field.
Read more on the Brookhaven National Laboratory (NBL)
Image: The photo shows a view of the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) accelerator tunnel located at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Scientists invented a new way of tracking electronic properties inside materials, and used it to visualize magnetic domains in a previously unseen way.
Everyone knows that holding two magnets together will lead to one of two results: they stick together, or they push each other apart. From this perspective, magnetism seems simple, but scientists have struggled for decades to really understand how magnetism behaves on the smallest scales. On the near-atomic level, magnetism is made of many ever-shifting kingdoms—called magnetic domains—that create the magnetic properties of the material. While scientists know these domains exist, they are still looking for the reasons behind this behavior.
Now, a collaboration led by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Max Born Institute (MBI) published a study in Nature in which they used a novel analysis technique—called coherent correlation imaging (CCI)—to image the evolution of magnetic domains in time and space without any previous knowledge. The scientists could not see the “dance of the domains” during the measurement but only afterward, when they used the recorded data to “rewind the tape.”
The “movie” of the domains shows how the boundaries of these domains shift back and forth in some areas but stay constant in others. The researchers attribute this behavior to a property of the material called “pinning.” While pinning is a known property of magnetic materials, the team could directly image for the first time how a network of pinning sites affects the motion of interconnected domain walls.
“Many details about the changes in magnetic materials are only accessible through direct imaging, which we couldn’t do until now. It’s basically a dream come true for studying magnetic motion in materials,” said Wen Hu, scientist at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) and co-corresponding author of the study.
Read more on the Brookhaven National Laboratory website
Image: The image shows the areas where the borders of magnetic domains accumulate over time. It is similar to a photo of a traffic intersection taken at night with a long exposure time. In such a photo, we would see brighter areas along the paths that most cars’ headlights traveled. Here we see brighter areas where most domain walls come together.
Research into threats from pathogens and pests would speed short-term response and spark long-term mitigation strategies
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science has selected Brookhaven National Laboratory to lead a new research effort focused on potential threats to crops grown for bioenergy production. Understanding how such bioenergy crops could be harmed by known or new pests or pathogens could help speed the development of rapid responses to mitigate damage and longer-term strategies for preventing such harm. The pilot project could evolve into a broader basic science capability to help ensure the development of resilient and sustainable bioenergy crops as part of a transition to a net-zero carbon economy.
The idea is modeled on the way DOE’s National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory (NVBL) pooled basic science capabilities to address the COVID-19 pandemic. With $5 Million in initial funding, allocated over the next two years, Brookhaven Lab and its partners will develop a coordinated approach for addressing biosecurity challenges. This pilot study will lead to a roadmap for building out a DOE-wide capability known as the National Virtual Biosecurity for Bioenergy Crops Center (NVBBCC).
“A robust biosecurity capability optimized to respond rapidly to biological threats to bioenergy crops requires an integrated and versatile platform,” said Martin Schoonen, Brookhaven Lab’s Associate Laboratory Director for Environment, Biology, Nuclear Science & Nonproliferation, who will serve as principal investigator for the pilot project. “With this initial funding, we’ll develop a bio-preparedness platform for sampling and detecting threats, predicting how they might propagate, and understanding how pests or pathogens interact with bioenergy crops at the molecular level—all of which are essential for developing short-term control measures and long-term solutions.”
Read more on the Brookhaven National Laboratory website
Image: Pilot study on an important disease in sorghum (above) will develop understanding of threats to bioenergy crops, potentially speeding the development of short-term responses and long-term mitigation strategies
Credit: US Department of Energy Genomic Science Program
