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The U.S. Department of Energy will fund two additional cutting-edge research projects at the Ames Laboratory through its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy's (ARPA-E) Rare Earth Alternatives in Critical Technologies (REACT) program. The project are aimed at replacing rare-earths in magnets used for wind turbines and electric vehicles.

Transistors and information storage devices are getting smaller and smaller. But, to go as small as the nanoscale, scientists must understand how just a few atoms of metals behave when deposited on a surface. 

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory are studying the interaction of materials that are promising for use in nanoscale electronics: graphene and different types of metals. The team has discovered the rare-earth metals dysprosium and gadolinium react strongly with graphene, while lead does not.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korean Institute of Industrial Technology, or KITECH. The agreement promotes international collaboration in rare-earth research.

Tanya Prozorov, a scientist at the U.S.  Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, will take an unprecedented look at how magnetic nanocrystals grow thanks to a DOE Office of Science Early Career Research award.  Prozorov was one of just 65 researchers (21 from the National Laboratories) selected from about 1,150 applications to the program, which is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by supporting “exceptional researchers during the crucial early years of their scientific careers when many scientists do their most formative work.”