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 SLAC develops materials to improve the performance of batteries, fuel cells and other energy technologies and set the stage for technologies of the future.

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Energy sciences

In materials hit with light, individual atoms and vibrations take disorderly paths.

News Feature

A machine learning algorithm automatically extracts information to speed up – and extend – the study of materials with X-ray pulse pairs.

A pattern of red and yellow dots surrounded by a ring of blue dots on a black background.
News Feature
For decades, materials scientists have focused on materials that are relatively balanced and unchanging – but not Yijing Huang, a postdoctoral scholar at the...
Yijing Huang at Stanford University
News Feature

Encapsulating precious-metal catalysts in a web-like alumina framework could reduce the amount needed in catalytic converters – and our dependency on these scarce metals.

A web of red material encapsulates blue polyhedrons.
Press Release
A new study has found that “diamond rain,” a long-hypothesized exotic type of precipitation on ice giant planets, could be more common than previously...
Diamond rain formation
News Feature

Spiraling laser light reveals how topological insulators lose their ability to conduct electric current on their surfaces.

: Against a black background, thin, glowing red wires at top impinge on the hexagonal surface of a translucent mass. Small white dots travel along the edges of the surface in two directions. Within the mass, two orange cones meet at their tips.
News Feature

Waves of magnetic excitation sweep through this exciting new material whether it’s in superconducting mode or not – another possible clue to how unconventional...

A brightly colored top is seen spinning between two layers of gray, purple and red spheres representing atoms in a nickel oxide superconductor.
News Feature

Researchers discover they contain a phase of quantum matter, known as charge density waves, that’s common in other unconventional superconductors. In other ways, though...

Artist's illustration shows quantum states called superconductivity and charge density waves atop an atomic lattice of balls and sticks
News Feature

How quickly a battery electrode decays depends on properties of individual particles in the battery – at first. Later on, the network of particles...

A group of particles, some highlighted in reds and oranges to show which have begun to break apart.
News Feature

A physical chemist and a diverse group of his students are working on applications with nanoscopic diamonds.

Three side-by-side portraits.
News Feature

It’s a significant step in understanding these whirling quasiparticles and putting them to work in future semiconductor technologies.

A beam of light hits a semiconductor material, ejecting an electron (blue) which goes on to partner with a hole (orange) to form a whirling compound particle, the exciton.
News Feature

SLAC’s Matt Garrett and Susan Simpkins talk about tech transfer that brings innovations from the national lab to the people, including advances for medical...

Tech Transfer
News Feature

A laser compressing an aluminum crystal provides a clearer view of a material’s plastic deformation, potentially leading to the design of stronger nuclear fusion...

an abstract illustration of rippling waves made of shining dots