#ames laboratory

Scientists Discover Potential Path to Improving Samarium-Cobalt Magnets

Scientists have discovered a potential tool to enhance magnetization and magnetic anisotropy, making it possible to improve the performance of samarium-cobalt magnets.

The scientists, at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute at Ames Laboratory, in collaboration with the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the…

Pairing ‘Glue’ for Electrons in Iron-Based High-Temp Superconductors Studied

Newly published research from a team of scientists led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory sheds more light on the nature of high-temperature iron-based superconductivity.

Current theories suggest that magnetic fluctuations play a very significant role in determining superconducting properties and even act as a “pairing glue” in iron-based superconductors.

“A metal becomes a…

Missing Link to Novel Superconductivity Revealed at Ames Laboratory

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered a state of magnetism that may be the missing link to understanding the relationship between magnetism and unconventional superconductivity. The research, recently published in npj Nature Quantum Materials, provides tantalizing new possibilities for attaining superconducting states in iron-based materials.

“In the…

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered a new process to sheathe metal under a single layer of graphite which may lead to new and better-controlled properties for these types of materials.

Graphene—two-dimensional graphite—was first produced in 2004, and because electronsmove rapidly along its surface, holds great promise as a useful material in applications…

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have developed germanium nanoparticles with improved photoluminescence, making them potentially better materials for solar cells and imaging probes. The research team found that by adding tin to the nanoparticle’s germanium core, its lattice structure better matched the lattice structure of the cadmium-sulfide coatingwhich allows the…

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory has discovered and described the existence of a unique disordered electron spin state in a metal that may provide a unique pathway to finding and studying frustrated magnets.

Condensed matter physicists use the term “frustrated” to describe a kind of magnet in which the spins fail to align into stable magnetic order. In perfectly frustrated magnetsc…

Researchers Discover Super-Elastic Shape-Memory Material

UConn materials science and engineering researcher Seok-Woo Lee and his colleagues have discovered super-elastic shape-memory properties in a material that could be applied for use as an actuator in the harshest of conditions, such as outer space, and might be the first in a whole new class of shape-memory materials.

If you have ever had braces or wear eyeglasses, you may have already come in…

Surrounded by Potential: New Science in Converting Biomass

In every plant—from trees to crops—there exists a substance that makes up its wood or stems, fiber, and cell walls. This substance is a complex natural polymer called lignin, and it is the second largest renewable carbon source on the planet after cellulose.

This natural abundance has drawn high interest from the research community to chemically convert lignin into biofuels. And if plant life…