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Materials Science
LLNL researchers break speed and scale barriers in 3D nanofabrication with new meta-optics platform
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) engineers and scientists, in collaboration with Stanford University, have demonstrated a breakthrough 3D nanofabrication approach that transforms two-photon lithography (TPL) from a slow, lab-scale technique into a wafer-scale manufacturing tool without sacrificing submicron precision. Published today in Nature, the team’s TPL…
3D-printed helixes show promise as THz optical materials
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have optimized and 3D-printed helix structures as optical materials for Terahertz (THz) frequencies, a potential way to address a technology gap for next-generation telecommunications, non-destructive evaluation, chemical/biological sensing and more. The printed microscale helixes reliably create circularly…
Energy-efficient process delivers rare-earth element for magnets
Neodymium is a rare-earth element essential for producing the strongest permanent magnets, which are widespread in defense technologies, hard drives, medical imaging devices, electric vehicle motors, wind turbines and more. Despite its designation in the U.S. as a critical material, neodymium is primarily mined and refined overseas. China controls much of the supply chain,…
Turning wastewater into valuable fertilizer
Almost half of the planet’s population depends on synthetic fertilizers to grow the food they eat. But that fertilizer comes at a cost — about two percent of the world’s energy budget. Improving efficiency and cutting costs of producing fertilizer would have big, global impacts. To that end, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are developing a…
From inception to ignition and beyond: Suhas Bhandarkar’s target fabrication career
Tiny parts and absolute meticulousness define Suhas Bhandarkar’s award-winning 20-year career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). As group leader for Target Fabrication Science and Technology (S&T), he leads a team that helps transform LLNL’s physicists’ bold ideas into reality at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Bhandarkar’s path began with a B.S…
Unique resin allows 3D-printing method to add and subtract
Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is normally a one-way street. In a digital light processing (DLP) printer, a structured pattern is projected onto a layer of liquid resin, which cures and solidifies. This builds an object up, layer-by-layer. But if the print isn’t exactly right, there’s no easy way to fix it after the fact: it usually ends up in the trash. In a new…
X-ray technique provides a new tool for nuclear forensics investigations
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are experts in nuclear forensics: the art and science of extracting information about the provenance and history of nuclear materials. Now, they have a new technique to add to their toolkit. In a study published in the Journal of Nuclear Materials, LLNL and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists…
California awards grant to LLNL and DarmokTech to develop recyclable sodium batteries
Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere: in phones, computers and more. The technology primarily uses liquid electrolytes, which facilitate charge moving from electrode to electrode, but they can also leak, short-circuit the battery and — in some cases — cause fires. In broader applications such as electrical grid storage, lithium scarcity also makes it difficult to rely on…
Miniaturized ion traps show promise of 3D printing for quantum-computing hardware
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the University of California (UC) Berkeley, UC Riverside and UC Santa Barbara have miniaturized quadrupole ion traps for the first time with 3D printing — a breakthrough in one of the most promising approaches to building a large-scale quantum computer. Quadrupole ion traps have four electrode poles that create…
New book documents optics innovations that were integral to ignition
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a chandelier “holding a system of high-precision optics,” according to a newly published book. But unlike a delicate chandelier illuminating a room, NIF’s thousands of optical components are able to resist or survive damage even under the enormous strain of amplifying and directing NIF…
Controlling water cuts energy costs for ethylene production
Maintaining American energy independence requires minimizing reliance on foreign countries to produce commodity chemicals and fuels. Using carbon dioxide electrolyzers to produce valuable chemical precursors such as ethylene provides one way to diversify domestic feedstocks. But, so far, these devices have been limited by their low efficiency, which makes them energy…
Carbon nanotube ‘smart windows’ offer energy savings
Half of the sun's radiant energy falls outside of the visible spectrum. On a cold day, this extra infrared light provides additional warmth to residential and commercial buildings. On a warm day, it leads to unwanted heating that must be dealt with through energy-intensive climate control methods such as air-conditioning. Visibly transparent “smart windows” that can…
LLNL’s Luis Zepeda-Ruiz wins prestigious award from American Association for Crystal Growth
At a conference held this summer, the American Association for Crystal Growth (AACG) recognized Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist Luis Zepeda-Ruiz with its Gentile Service Award for “long and meritorious service to the crystal growth community.” Named after Tony Gentile, who spent many years serving AACG, this honor has only been bestowed four times…
LLNL demonstrates new model that explains plutonium’s peculiar behavior
Normally, materials expand when heated. Higher temperatures cause atoms to vibrate, bounce around and take up a larger volume. However, for one specific phase of plutonium — called delta-plutonium — the opposite inexplicably occurs: it shrinks above room temperature. As part of its national security mission, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) aims to predict the…
LLNL pushes frontier of fusion target design with AI
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have reached a milestone in combining AI with fusion target design by deploying AI agents on two of the world’s most powerful supercomputers to automate and accelerate inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. Part of an AI framework called the Multi-Agent Design Assistant (MADA), LLNL scientists and…
LLNL’s Sichi Li appointed to JACS Au Early Career Advisory Board
JACS Au, an open-access journal from the American Chemical Society, has selected Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) staff scientist Sichi Li to serve on its 2025–2026 Early Career Advisory Board. JACS Au publishes high-impact, cutting-edge research across the full spectrum of chemistry and related disciplines. The Early Career Advisory Board is composed of…
LLNL researchers train liquid droplets to play tic-tac-toe
Artificial intelligence and high-performance computing are driving up the demand for massive sources of energy. But neuromorphic computing, which aims to mimic the structure and function of the human brain, could present a new paradigm for energy-efficient computing. To this end, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) created a droplet-based platform…
First-of-its-kind microscope takes 3D ghost images of nanoparticles
Ghost imaging is like a game of Battleship. Instead of seeing an object directly, scientists use entangled photons to remove the background and reveal its silhouette. This method can be used to study microscopic environments without much light, which is helpful for avoiding photodamage to biological samples. So far, quantum ghost imaging has been limited to two dimensions,…
Self-driving lab to automate the discovery of novel alloys
Pure metals like aluminum or titanium don’t always have the desired material properties — strength, hardness, ductility or corrosion resistance — for a given application. For this reason, researchers seek out novel alloy solutions, mixing a primary metal element with a series of other elements to create a material with tailored properties for uses in aerospace, defense,…
High explosives in slow motion: freezing molecules in place shows chemical reactions
Safe and effective high explosives are critical to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) mission of stockpile stewardship. It is relatively simple to study the composition of such material before a detonation or examine the soot-like remnants afterward. But the chemistry in between, which dictates much of the detonation process, evades experimental interrogation…
