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From left, Andrew Lupini and Juan Carlos Idrobo use ORNL’s new monochromated, aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, a Nion HERMES to take the temperatures of materials at the nanoscale. Image credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory

A scientific team led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has found a new way to take the local temperature of a material from an area about a billionth of a meter wide, or approximately 100,000 times thinner than a human hair. This discove...

ORNL_graphene_substrate

A new method to produce large, monolayer single-crystal-like graphene films more than a foot long relies on harnessing a “survival of the fittest” competition among crystals. The novel technique, developed by a team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, may open new opportunities for growing the high-quality two-dimensional materials necessary for long-awaited practical applications.

ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia (center, seated) visited Robertsville Middle School to present a check in support of the school’s CubeSat efforts.

Last November a team of students and educators from Robertsville Middle School in Oak Ridge and scientists from Oak Ridge National Laboratory submitted a proposal to NASA for their Cube Satellite Launch Initiative in hopes of sending a student-designed nanosatellite named RamSat into...

Juan Carlos Idrobo
For Juan Carlos Idrobo, the scientist’s journey is like taking a test that is only two pages long. You start reading the first page, but you don’t understand any of the questions. You keep reading and after a while a light turns on and you begin to understand. “You work really, re...
Shown as green spheres, microcapsules containing the polymer manganoporphyrin, a newly developed antioxidant (green), the natural antioxidant tannic acid (yellow), and a binding material (blue), can be analyzed for stability and efficiency with neutrons.
Many natural and synthetic antioxidants help defend the body against oxidative stress—a biochemical imbalance that can damage cells and lead to illnesses such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s and cancer. However, these materials can become unstable and less effective over time. A new ...
Researcher Rob Schmidt and his team are using neutrons at HFIR’s CG-1D imaging instrument to study the development of dendrites with hope of improving the design of next-generation lithium ion batteries. Dendrites are thin microscopic fibers that can carr
Researchers are using neutrons to study a battery material that could offer a safer alternative to the flammable liquid component found in most types of lithium-ion batteries. Rob Schmidt, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a...
ACEAlloy cylinder: High-performance aluminum cerium alloys have automotive, aerospace and energy applications, such as this automotive cylinder head cast.

Four technologies developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have earned 2018 Excellence in Technology Transfer Awards from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC). The FLC is a nationwide network of more than 30...

The Weyl semimetal state is induced when the opposing motions of the electrons cause the Dirac cones to split in two (illustrated on the left by outward facing electrons, opposite the inward facing electrons on the right).
The observation of an abnormal state of matter in a two-dimensional magnetic material is the latest development in the race to harness novel electronic properties for more robust and efficient next-generation devices. Neutron scattering at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge ...
Joseph Lukens, Pavel Lougovski and Nicholas Peters (from left), researchers with ORNL’s Quantum Information Science Group, are examining methods for encoding photons with quantum information that are compatible with the existing telecommunications infrast
A team of researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has demonstrated a new method for splitting light beams into their frequency modes. The scientists can then choose the frequencies they want to work with and encode photons with qu...
ORNL researchers Todd Toops, Charles Finney, and Melanie DeBusk (left to right) hold an example of a particulate filter used to collect harmful emissions in vehicles.

Researchers are looking to neutrons for new ways to save fuel during the operation of filters that clean the soot, or carbon and ash-based particulate matter, emitted by vehicles. A team of researchers from the Energy and Transportation Science Division at the Department of En...