Materials Sciences and Engineering News

What’s MER? It’s a way to measure quantum materials, and it’s telling us new and interesting things

Experimental physicists have combined several measurements of quantum materials into one in their ongoing quest to learn more about manipulating and controlling the behavior of them for possible applications. They even coined a term for it-- Magneto-elastoresistance, or MER.

Graphic representation of magneto-elastoresistance

Atom-by-atom: Ames Lab’s powerful microscopes help scientists redefine understanding of antiferroelectrics

Ames Laboratory’s capabilities in viewing materials atom-by-atom at its Sensitive Instrument Facility (SIF) regularly helps scientists discover new rules of quantum behavior. Now, the Laboratory’s powerful microscopes have corrected a long held structural model in a class of materials called antiferroelectrics.

Micrograph showing alignment of atoms in antiferroelectrics

Ames Lab paper a Matter Editor's pick for 2019

Ames Lab paper a Matter Editor's pick

Ames Laboratory collaborates on development of elastocaloric material

An international research team led by the University of Maryland has developed a novel elastocaloric cooling material that is highly efficient, eco-friendly and easily scaled-up for commercial use. The researchers new cooling material is a nickel-titanium alloy that was sculpted using additive technology (3-D printing). Their work is published in the November 29 issue of Science.

graphic representation of 3D metal printing

For the sake of the planet, refrigeration tech needs an update

Refrigeration keeps our food is fresh and our offices and living rooms are temperature-controlled thanks to vapor compression technology developed over a century ago, but it's reached its theoretical limit for potential energy efficiency. A group of scientists and engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory are inspired by the idea that refrigeration could be radically improved—made cheaper, cleaner, and more energy-efficient—by abandoning vapor compression for something entirely new: a solid-state caloric system.

Under pressure: a new experimental apparatus gathers more insight on magnetic and superconducting states

A new technique developed at Ames Laboratory lets scientists study a material's specific heat while it's subjected to high pressure, a breakthrough that allows mapping of electronic, magnetic, and structural phase transitions, how those transitions interact and ultimately to control them for desired properties.

high pressure measurement of superconductors

2D insulators with ferromagnetic properties are rare; researchers just identified a new one

Collaborating scientists at Ames Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Princeton University have discovered a new layered ferromagnetic semiconductor, a rare type of material that holds great promise for next-generation electronic technologies.

Squeezed nanocrystals: A new model predicts their shape when blanketed under graphene

In a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Northeastern University, scientists have developed a model for predicting the shape of metal nanocrystals or “islands” sandwiched between or below two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene. The advance moves 2D quantum materials a step closer to applications in electronics.

Scientists measure exact edge between superconducting and magnetic states

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have developed a method to accurately measure the “exact edge” or onset at which a magnetic field enters a superconducting material. The knowledge of this threshold— called the lower critical field— plays a crucial role in untangling the difficulties that have prevented the broader use of superconductivity in new technologies.

Taking magnetism for a spin: exploring the mysteries of skyrmions

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered the relaxation dynamics of a zero-field state in skyrmions, a spinning magnetic phenomenon that has potential applications in data storage and spintronic devices.