Overview

Advanced materials are at the heart of our technically advanced society. Materials science research at SSRL focuses on two broad themes: (1) accelerating materials discovery with advanced X-ray characterization methods and (2) identifying how collective function emerges from constituent interactions in strongly correlated electron systems.

SSRL research is improving the performance of everyday materials and developing the deep understanding needed to create the materials of the future.

Brochure

The success of the Materials Genome Initiative has highlighted a key challenge that must be addressed to further accelerate the pace of fruitful materials discovery. A gap exists between theoretical and experimental approaches to materials discovery that suppresses the rate of materials discovery. Closing this gap requires a deeper understanding of how synthesis and processing conditions control the structure of new materials. We will focus on materials targeting sustainable energy independence and on advanced manufacturing that promises to initiate a digital renaissance in American manufacturing.

The Materials Science program at SSRL has a long and successful history of synergetic interactions with other programs at SLAC and Stanford. The collaboration with the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES) has been instrumental to the highly successful ARPES program on quantum materials, which in turn strongly influenced the development of beam line 5, including the recent development of in-situ synthesis and analysis of novel quantum materials. The SSRL and SIMES collaboration on battery research has been an important stimulus for the development of operando X-ray tomography capabilities. Similarly, the oxide interface research effort serves as a driver for the interface scattering beam line development. This history of close collaboration between local scientific teams has been a hallmark of SSRL’s approach to science and central to the development of technical capabilities beneficial to the general user community.

Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES)

The Quantum Materials program addresses outstanding questions in the field of Condensed Matter and Materials Physics (CMMP) related to the collective behavior of strongly correlated and magnetic materials. Largely stimulated by the discoveries of new forms of order and rich phenomena in correlated materials, these questions are at the heart of the Basic Energy Science grand challenge to understand the emergence of collective phenomena.

SIMES Website

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Theory Institute for Materials and Energy Spectroscopies (TIMES)

The primary objective of TIMES is to incubate and develop advanced theories and numerical algorithms, and perform the associated simulations for addressing cutting-edge problems in materials and energy sciences at advanced and next-generation photon facilities. TIMES focuses on three key research efforts centered on the creation and curation of modern codes and simulations for spectropscopy of novel materials.

TIMES Website SLAC Article