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Discoveries: Materials for the Future

We seek to control materials functionality and predict materials performance.

Our national security priorities of nuclear deterrence, energy security, and global security demand that the Laboratory be a leader in materials science and engineering.

Prediction of a material’s performance over its lifetime in a complex service environment is critical for accelerating new materials into applications. This pillar requires both “predictable performance,” the ability to reliably and consistently forecast how a material will perform over its lifetime, and “controlled functionality,” the actual design and tailoring of a material’s properties that were previously unattainable or not available with traditional techniques.

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  • Integrated Nanomaterials
  • Plutonium Science
  • Quantum Materials

Integrated Nanomaterials

Los Alamos discovers and develops nanomaterials, integrating them into devices for real-world applications, including quantum dot optical systems and active metamaterials to control light.

Discoveries Integrated Nano Banner
Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductors with dimensions at the nanoscale. The wavelength (color) at which they fluoresce can be tuned by controlling their size with angstrom-level precision. Photo courtesy of the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies.

Summary

Nanoscale integration involves combining nanoscale materials—with extraordinary physical, chemical, or biological properties—with other materials to amplify their properties or obtain entirely new behaviors. LANL research has targeted the path from scientific discovery to technological impacts, founding the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), a DOE Nanoscale Research Center, in 2006.

LANL scientists lead the way in both photonic devices based on nanocrystal quantum dots (QDs) and functional metamaterials. Work in colloidal nanocrystal QDs has broken ground in synthetic control of nanoscale heterostructures, laser spectroscopy, optical gain, nonlinear optical effects, and multi-carrier phenomena, with applications including quantum dot lasers and single-photon sources. 

Artificial metamaterials are engineered around subwavelength structures. LANL leads in metamaterials bridging the “terahertz gap,” inventing photonic devices in a region of the electromagnetic spectrum where natural materials fail and pioneering metamaterials with electrically switchable and tunable functionality, perfect absorption, broadband polarization conversion, nanoscale optoelectronic responses, nonreciprocal transmission/reflection, and on-demand quantum entanglement.

Contributing Author

Toni Taylor

References:

Optical gain in nanocrystal quantum dots:

  1. Optical gain and stimulated emission in nanocrystal quantum dots, Klimov, V. I., A. A. Mikhailovsky, S. Xu, et al. Science 290, no. 5490 (2000): 314–317. 
  2. High Efficiency Carrier Multiplication in PbSe Nanocrystals: Implications for Solar Energy Conversion, Schaller, R. D., and V. I. Klimov. Physical Review Letters 92 (2004): 186601. 

Quantum dots with suppressed blinking for continuous operation:

  1. 'Giant' multishell CdSe nanocrystal quantum dots with suppressed blinking, Chen, Y., J. Vela, H. Htoon, et al.  Journal of the American Chemical Society 130, no. 15, (2008): 5026.

Quantum dot single photon emitters for telecommunications:

  1. PbS/CdS Quantum Dot Room-Temperature Single-Emitter Spectroscopy Reaches the Telecom O and S Bands via an Engineered Stability, Krishnamurthy, S., A. Singh, Z. Hu, et al. ACS Nano 15 (2021): 575.
  2. Room-Temperature Fiber-Coupled Single-Photon Sources based on Colloidal Quantum Dots and SiV Centers in Back-Excited Nanoantennas. Lubotzky, B., A. Nazarov, H. Abudayyeh, et al. Nano Letters 24 (2024): 640.

Quantum-dot amplified spontaneous emission devices:

  1. Electrically driven amplified spontaneous emission from colloidal quantum dots. Ahn, N., C. Livache, V. Pinchetti, et al. Nature 617 (2023): 79. 
  2. Colloidal quantum dots enable liquid-state lasers. Hahm, D., V. Pinchetti, C. Livanche, et al. Nature Materials 24 (2024): 48.

Review of metasurface physics and applications:

  1. A review of metasurfaces: physics and applications. H.-T. Chen, A. J. Taylor, and N. Yu.  Reports on Progress in Physics 79, no.7 (2016): 076401.

Metamaterial modulation at terahertz frequencies:

  1. Active terahertz metamaterial devices. H.-T. Chen, W. J. Padilla, J. M. O. Zide, A. C. Gossard, A. J. Taylor, and R. D. Averitt. Nature 444, no. 7119 (2006): 597–600.

Metasurface-based flat optics at terahertz frequencies:

  1. Terahertz metamaterials for linear polarization conversion and anomalous refraction. N. K. Grady, J. E. Heyes, D. Roy Chowdhury, et al. Science 340, no. 6138 (2013): 1304–1307.

Linear to circular polarization conversion based on metasurfaces:

  1. Broadband linear-to circular polarization conversion enabled by birefringent off-resonance reflective metasurfaces. C.-C. Chang, Z. Zhao, D. Li, A. J. Taylor, S. Fan, and H.-T. Chen. Physical Review Letters 123, no. 23 (2019): 237401.

Nonreciprocal reflection and transmission based on metasurfaces:

  1. Surface-wave-assisted nonreciprocity in spatio-temporally modulated metasurfaces. A. E. Cardin, S. R. Silva, S. R. Vardeny, et al. Nature Communications 11  (2020): 1469.

Metasurface vectorial terahertz emission:

  1. Light-driven nanoscale vectorial currents. J. Pettine, P. Padmanabhan, T. Shi, et al. Nature 626 (2024): 984–989. 

Plutonium Science

The history of Los Alamos is intimately intertwined with plutonium.  Every advance in plutonium science either happened here or was inspired by this Laboratory.  

Discoveries Plutonium
Single crystals of CeCoGa5 and PuCoGa5 compounds that exhibit localized-delocalized f-electron behaviors, a hallmark of highly correlated materials. The cerium compound is a surrogate system for plutonium-based superconductors.

Summary

Plutonium was recognized as the superior fuel for the atomic bomb shortly after its 1940 discovery. The earliest samples varied widely in density, the first clue to plutonium’s complexity. Nonetheless, workable alloys were developed over five short months before April 1945.  

Next came the discovery of complex, six-phase crystallography of plutonium, followed by its properties under shock and pressure. The cessation of nuclear testing in 1992 required a much greater understanding of plutonium’s fundamental properties. This resulted in experiments ranging from accelerated aging (using  plutonium-238) and dynamic measurements such as gas guns to major innovations in spectroscopy, theory, and modeling.

Practical applications of plutonium science beyond its direct use in weapons and reactors have included solving complex-wide plutonium storage problems, the minimal-waste Advanced Recovery and Integrated Extraction System (ARIES) for plutonium recovery, and insights into environmental plutonium transport that allowed cleanup of Rocky Flats Plant a year ahead of schedule.

Contributing authors

Joe Martz and Dave Clark

References

Turn-of-the century overview of what was then known about plutonium:

  1. Challenges in Plutonium Science. Los Alamos Science 26 (2000).  

Review of the plutonium aging issue:

  1. Plutonium Aging: From Mystery to Enigma. Hecker, S. Siegfried, and Joseph C. Martz.  Proceedings of the Oxford Conference on Aging and Lifetime Extension of Materials (1999).

Discovery of a NMR signal from plutonium: 

  1. Observation of 239Pu Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Yasuoka, H., G. Koutroulakis, H. Chudo, et al., Science 336 (2021): 901.

The Plutonium Handbook gathers our unclassified understanding of plutonium in one place:

  1. The Plutonium Handbook. 2nd ed., Clark, David L., David A. Geeson, and Robert Hanrahan, Jr.;  American Nuclear Society, 2019. 

During the Manhattan project, our understanding of plutonium expanded rapidly:

  1. The Taming of Plutonium: Plutonium Metallurgy and the Manhattan Project. Martz, Joseph C., Franz J. Freibert, and David L. Clark. Nuclear Technology, 207, sup. 1 (2021): S266–S285.

Plutonium has an extraordinary number of crystal configurations.

  1. Crystal chemical studies of the 5f-series of elements. I. New structure types. Zachariasen, W. H., Acta Crystallography 1, no.5 (1948): 265.
  2. New Pressure-Temperature Phase Diagram of Plutonium. Morgan, J. R. (1970).  Plutonium 1970 and Other Actinides: Proc. 4th Int. Conf. on Plutonium and Other Actinides. W. N. Miner. Santa Fe, New Mexico, Metallurgical Society of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers: 669-678.

The scientific understanding of the chemistry of plutonium in the environment saved time and taxpayer dollars:

  1. Science-based cleanup of Rocky Flats; Clark, D. L. Janecky, D. R., Lane, L. J.;  Physics Today 1 September 2006; 59 (9): 34–40.

Quantum Materials

Los Alamos’ discovery of materials dominated by quantum effects, ranging from liquid helium-3 to plutonium metal, is opening the door to future quantum hardware.

Discoveries Quantummaterials
Quantum materials often develop new and technologically useful states of matter that emerge from a quantum critical point at zero temperature.

Summary

 Los Alamos has shaped the field of materials whose properties are driven by quantum effects—in short, quantum materials. Cryogenic capabilities that led to the first liquefaction of the quantum fluid helium-3 at Los Alamos in 1948 soon thereafter enabled the Ivy Mike thermonuclear test. In the early 80s, LANL scientists discovered superconductivity and magnetism in uranium-based materials with massive electrons produced by electronic correlations. Low-temperature measurements revealed that superconductivity was a new quantum state of matter. These unconventional uranium materials led to the discovery of new heavy-electron plutonium- and cerium-based superconductors and provided the scientific justification for LANL’s pulsed magnetic field facility that produced the first non-destructive magnet fields over 100 Tesla.

Today, we explore how novel quantum materials may lead to tomorrow’s quantum devices while learning how the same electronic correlations that give rise to exotic superconductivity and magnetism are also responsible for the complexity of plutonium metal.

Contributing authors

Filip Ronning and Joe Thompson

References

The early work on Helium-3 and heavy fermions is responsible for perhaps 50% of all quantum materials research world-wide today: 

  1. Condensation of Pure He3 and Its Vapor Pressures between 1.2° and Its Critical Point. Grilly, E. R., E. F. Hammel, and S. G. Sydoriak, 1949, Physical Review Journal, 75, no. 305 (1949): 1103.

Quantum phenomena are observed across the periodic table, including the actinides:

  1. Unconventional superconductivity in PuCoGa5. Curro, N., Caldwell, T., E. Bauer, et al. Nature 434 (2005): 622–5. 
  2. UBe13: An Unconventional Actinide Superconductor. H. R. Ott, H. Rudigier, Z. Fisk, and J. L. Smith, Physical Review Letters 50, (1983): 1595.