![White car (Porsche Taycan) with the hood popped is inside the building with an american flag on the wall.](/sites/default/files/styles/featured_square_large/public/2024-06/2024-P09317.jpg?h=8f9cfe54&itok=m6sQhZRq)
Filter News
Area of Research
- (-) Energy Sciences (1)
- (-) Neutron Science (44)
- Advanced Manufacturing (11)
- Biological Systems (1)
- Biology and Environment (77)
- Building Technologies (2)
- Clean Energy (183)
- Computational Biology (2)
- Computational Engineering (3)
- Computer Science (12)
- Electricity and Smart Grid (3)
- Fuel Cycle Science and Technology (1)
- Functional Materials for Energy (2)
- Fusion and Fission (31)
- Fusion Energy (12)
- Isotope Development and Production (1)
- Isotopes (11)
- Materials (119)
- Materials Characterization (2)
- Materials for Computing (19)
- Materials Under Extremes (1)
- Mathematics (1)
- National Security (32)
- Nuclear Science and Technology (39)
- Nuclear Systems Modeling, Simulation and Validation (1)
- Quantum information Science (9)
- Sensors and Controls (1)
- Supercomputing (114)
- Transportation Systems (2)
News Topics
- (-) Big Data (2)
- (-) Biomedical (11)
- (-) Clean Water (2)
- (-) Machine Learning (3)
- (-) Materials (14)
- (-) Nuclear Energy (3)
- (-) Quantum Science (7)
- (-) Summit (6)
- (-) Sustainable Energy (3)
- (-) Transportation (5)
- 3-D Printing/Advanced Manufacturing (6)
- Advanced Reactors (1)
- Artificial Intelligence (6)
- Bioenergy (6)
- Biology (5)
- Biotechnology (1)
- Chemical Sciences (2)
- Climate Change (1)
- Composites (1)
- Computer Science (13)
- Coronavirus (8)
- Cybersecurity (1)
- Decarbonization (2)
- Energy Storage (7)
- Environment (8)
- Fossil Energy (1)
- Frontier (1)
- Fusion (1)
- High-Performance Computing (2)
- Materials Science (23)
- Mathematics (1)
- Microscopy (3)
- Nanotechnology (10)
- National Security (2)
- Neutron Science (99)
- Physics (9)
- Polymers (1)
- Quantum Computing (1)
- Security (2)
- Space Exploration (3)
Media Contacts
![Artist’s conceptual drawing illustrates the novel energy filtering technique using neutrons that enabled researchers at ORNL to freeze moving germanium telluride atoms in an unblurred image. The images offered key insights into how the material produces its outstanding thermoelectric performance. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-03/23-G02345_VariableShutter_0.png?h=68c90eda&itok=LLAHAeOZ)
Scientists have long sought to better understand the “local structure” of materials, meaning the arrangement and activities of the neighboring particles around each atom. In crystals, which are used in electronics and many other applications, most of the atoms form highly ordered lattice patterns that repeat. But not all atoms conform to the pattern.
![Heat is typically carried through a material by vibrations known as phonons. In some crystals, however, different atomic motions — known as phasons — carry heat three times faster and farther. This illustration shows phasons made by rearranging atoms, shown by arrows. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-02/23-G01840_Phason_Manly_proof3_0.png?h=10d202d3&itok=3NpjriWi)
Warming a crystal of the mineral fresnoite, ORNL scientists discovered that excitations called phasons carried heat three times farther and faster than phonons, the excitations that usually carry heat through a material.
![Even small movements of hydrogen, shown in yellow, were found to cause large energy shifts in the attached iron atoms, shown in silver, which could be of interest in creating novel chemical reactions. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2023-02/Feb_nscd_storytip_1.png?h=b69e0e0e&itok=kwLq6_Wl)
Researchers from Yale University and ORNL collaborated on neutron scattering experiments to study hydrogen atom locations and their effects on iron in a compound similar to those commonly used in industrial catalysts.
![A pure lipid membrane formed using lipid-coated water droplets exhibits long-term potentiation, or LTP, associated with learning and memory, emulating hippocampal LTP observed in the brains of mammals and birds. Credit: Jill Hemman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-12/22-G03904_Katsaras.png?h=e5aec6c8&itok=reSDZkmx)
While studying how bio-inspired materials might inform the design of next-generation computers, scientists at ORNL achieved a first-of-its-kind result that could have big implications for both edge computing and human health.
![ORNL postdoctoral researcher Runming Tao, pictured with a coin cell battery, led an effort to discover new anode materials for fast-charging lithium-ion batteries. Credit: ORNL/Genevieve Martin, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-09/2022-P09174.jpg?h=c6980913&itok=C8xoI7J4)
Researchers at ORNL and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, discovered a key material needed for fast-charging lithium-ion batteries. The commercially relevant approach opens a potential pathway to improve charging speeds for electric vehicles.
![Magnetic quantum material broadens platform for probing next-gen information technologies](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-07/2022-G00762_DataOilPaintingStill_Stone_jnd_April2022.jpg?h=d1cb525d&itok=oepl7N2Y)
Scientists at ORNL used neutron scattering to determine whether a specific material’s atomic structure could host a novel state of matter called a spiral spin liquid.
![The ORNL researchers’ findings may enable better detection of uranium tetrafluoride hydrate, a little-studied byproduct of the nuclear fuel cycle, and better understanding of how environmental conditions influence the chemical behavior of fuel cycle materials. Credit: Kevin Pastoor/Colorado School of Mines](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2022-05/UF4%20hydrate.png?h=d318f057&itok=spT-Dg48)
ORNL researchers used the nation’s fastest supercomputer to map the molecular vibrations of an important but little-studied uranium compound produced during the nuclear fuel cycle for results that could lead to a cleaner, safer world.
![A material’s spins, depicted as red spheres, are probed by scattered neutrons. Applying an entanglement witness, such as the QFI calculation pictured, causes the neutrons to form a kind of quantum gauge. This gauge allows the researchers to distinguish between classical and quantum spin fluctuations. Credit: Nathan Armistead/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-11/Quantum%20Illustration%20V3_0.png?h=2e111cc1&itok=Bth5wkD4)
A team led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory demonstrated the viability of a “quantum entanglement witness” capable of proving the presence of entanglement between magnetic particles, or spins, in a quantum material.
![ORNL researchers used neutrons at the lab’s Spallation Neutron Source to analyze modified high-entropy metal alloys with enhanced strength and ductility, or the ability to stretch, under high-stress without failing. Credit: Rui Feng/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-10/HEA%20alloy%20story%20tipe%20image%20PNG%20File_0.png?h=1356c768&itok=3en3kAQ0)
![An ORNL-led team comprising researchers from multiple DOE national laboratories is using artificial intelligence and computational screening techniques – in combination with experimental validation – to identify and design five promising drug therapy approaches to target the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Credit: Michelle Lehman/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy](/sites/default/files/styles/list_page_thumbnail/public/2021-06/frame1.png?h=d1cb525d&itok=51pwBWyP)
An ORNL-led team comprising researchers from multiple DOE national laboratories is using artificial intelligence and computational screening techniques – in combination with experimental validation – to identify and design five promising drug therapy approaches to target the SARS-CoV-2 virus.