Oak Ridge Today

ORNL technologies receive six R&D 100 Awards

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Using the Atomic Forge, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers brought two, three, and four silicon atoms together to build clusters (green) and make them rotate within a layer of graphene (blue). (Image courtesy ORNL)

Using the Atomic Forge, Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers brought two, three, and four silicon atoms together to build clusters (green) and make them rotate within a layer of graphene (blue). (Image courtesy ORNL)

 

By Shelby Whitehead and Sean Simoneau

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have received six R&D 100 Awards in recognition of their significant advancements in science and technology, a press release said. The honorees were recognized over the weekend at the 56th annual R&D 100 Conference, which is sponsored by R&D Magazine.

The awards, known as the “Oscars of Invention,” honor research and development pioneers and their revolutionary breakthroughs in materials science, biomedicine, consumer products, and more from academia, industry, and government-sponsored research agencies, the press release said. This year’s six honors bring ORNL’s total of R&D 100 awards to 216 since their inception in 1963.

ORNL researchers were recognized for the following innovations: [Read more…]

Four ORNL researchers elected fellows of American Physical Society

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Jaime Fernandez-Baca

Jaime Fernandez-Baca (Photo courtesy ORNL)

Four researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society, one of the nation’s top professional organizations for scientists.

Jaime Fernandez-Baca, Sergei Kalinin, Mark Lumsden, and Thomas Maier were selected for the honor by the APS Council of Representatives. They will be formally recognized at the APS’s March meeting.

Fernandez-Baca, a distinguished research staff member in the Quantum Condensed Matter Division in ORNL’s Neutron Science Directorate, was recognized by the APS Division of Materials Physics “for seminal neutron scattering studies of magnetic materials, especially the spin and lattice dynamics of colossal magnetoresistive manganites.”

Fernandez-Baca’s research is performed mainly at ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor, where he is the lead for the Triple Axis Spectroscopy group. His expertise is in the study of the magnetic ordering and spin dynamics of complex oxides and related alloys using neutron scattering techniques.

He was the recipient of the International Atomic Energy Agency fellowship, the DOE Office of Science Outstanding Mentor Award (2008), and the Neutron Scattering Society of America Distinguished Service Award (2014). [Read more…]

ORNL’s Kalinin awarded Royal Microscopical Society medal

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Sergei Kalinin

With scanning probe microscopy, ORNL’s Sergei Kalinin explores nanoscale phenomena in new materials for energy and data storage to accelerate their discovery, design, and deployment. (Photo courtesy ORNL) 

 

Materials scientist Sergei Kalinin of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been awarded the inaugural Medal for Scanning Probe Microscopy, or SPM, by the Royal Microscopical Society, or RMS.

Kalinin is director of ORNL’s Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials, which melds capabilities in imaging, high-performance computing, and materials theory to guide the design of advanced materials for energy applications. He is also a theme leader at the  Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at ORNL, and an adjunct associate professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. [Read more…]

Science: ORNL researchers tune friction in ionic solids at the nanoscale

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Friction Release

Researchers used electricity and water to control friction levels on ionic surfaces at the nanoscale. As water forms around the nanoscale electrode, it allows for further penetration into the sample surface, thereby increasing or decreasing friction. (Image courtesy ORNL)

Friction impacts motion, hence the need to control friction forces. Currently, this is accomplished by mechanistic means or lubrication, but experiments conducted by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have uncovered a way of controlling friction on ionic surfaces at the nanoscale using electrical stimulation and ambient water vapor.

The research, which demonstrates a new physical effect, was undertaken at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science User Facility at ORNL, and is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

“Our finding can have a significant technological impact on applications for both macroscopic and nanoscale devices,” said lead author Evgheni Strelcov. “Decreasing or increasing nanoscale friction at will and thus controlling mechanical energy losses and wear of a microelectromechanical system’s parts has enormous implications for applied energy research and opens a new vista for fundamental science studies.” [Read more…]

ORNL launches Imaging Institute

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Sergei Kalinin of ORNL Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials

Sergei Kalinin is inaugural director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials. (Image credit: Jason Richards, ORNL)

 

By Dawn Levy

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched the Institute for Functional Imaging of Materials to accelerate the discovery, design, and deployment of new materials. The institute will meld world-class capabilities in imaging, high-performance computing, materials science, and other scientific disciplines to probe materials. It supports President Obama’s Materials Genome Initiative, which aims to bring new materials to the marketplace.

“Advanced materials are essential to clean energy, national security and global competitiveness,” said ORNL Director Thom Mason. “Key energy technologies like solar cells, superconductors, and batteries all have shortcomings that next-generation materials might overcome.”

By focusing expertise from ORNL’s diverse science portfolio, capabilities in high-performance computing, and success in creating new tools for discovery, the institute promises to speed the arrival of next-generation materials. [Read more…]