News Releases

Theoretical modeling illuminates a new nonlinear Hall Effect

An international team of researchers including a team from the Center for the Advancement of Topological Semimetals (CATS), an Energy Frontier Research Center under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science led by Ames National Laboratory, experimentally demonstrated a new type of nonlinear Hall effect.

CMI Hub makes key step to process rare earth metals in United States

The Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI Hub) worked with industry to take a key step in how to process rare earth metals in the United States. This will help the U.S. supply chain for magnets.

Image of metal cube that is part of a CMI Hub process to refine powder and reduce it to a metal.

Researchers use AI to find new magnetic materials without critical elements

A team of scientists from Ames National Laboratory developed a new machine learning model for discovering critical-element-free permanent magnet materials. The model predicts the Curie temperature of new material combinations.

CMI wins awards in 2023 R&D 100 program

The Critical Materials Institute, an Energy Innovation Hub of the U.S. Department of Energy that is led by Ames National Laboratory, won five awards in 2023 R&D 100 programs, bringing the CMI total of awards won through these programs to a dozen.

Researchers develop a unique quantum mechanical approach to determining metal ductility

A team of scientists from Ames National Laboratory and Texas A&M University developed a new way to predict metal ductility. This quantum-mechanics-based approach fills a need for an inexpensive, efficient, high-throughput way to predict ductility. The team demonstrated its effectiveness on refractory multi-principal-element alloys.

Structure of the elusive boron monoxide finally determined after 83 years

In an effort to discover new 2D materials, a team of scientists from Ames National Laboratory determined the structure of boron monoxide using new NMR methods and previously unavailable analytical tools.

Boron structure research depicted as an archaeological dig.

Researchers make a surprising discovery about the magnetic interactions in a Kagome layered topological magnet

A team from Ames National Laboratory conducted an in-depth investigation of the magnetism of TbMn6Sn6, a Kagome layered topological magnet. They were surprised to find that the magnetic spin reorientation in TbMn6Sn6 occurs by generating increasing numbers of magnetically isotropic ions as the temperature increases.

Diagram of uniaxial and isotropic Tb ions.

New tool helps improve quantum computing circuit component

Researchers use a new tool to help improve a key component in commercially produced quantum computing circuits.

Scientists make a surprising discovery about magnetic defects in topological insulators

Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory made an intriguing discovery while conducting experiments to characterize magnetism in a material known as a dilute magnetic topological insulator where magnetic defects are introduced. Despite this material’s ferromagnetism, the team discovered strong antiferromagnetic interactions between some pairs of magnetic defects that play a key role in several families of magnetic topological insulators.

Advanced Materials back cover highlighting this research

Ultralow temperature terahertz microscope capabilities enable better quantum technology

A team of scientists from the Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory have developed a way to collect terahertz imaging data on materials under extreme magnetic and cryogenic conditions.