Department of Energy (DoE)

Scientists at MIT have found a way to visualize electron behavior beneath a material’s surface. The team’s technique is based on quantum mechanical tunneling, a process by which electrons can traverse energetic barriers by simply appearing on the other side. In this image, researchers show the measured tunneling spectra at various densities, with high measurements in red.

A new window into electron behavior

Scientists invent technique to map energy and momentum of electrons beneath a material’s surface.

November 16, 2017

Artist's impression of the sensor comprised of conductive ink printed across a stoma with two micropillars.

Sensors applied to plant leaves warn of water shortage

Electronic circuits reveal when a plant begins to experience drought conditions.

November 8, 2017

The sliding of a perfect twin boundary, with mirrored crystal lattices on both sides, was long considered to be impossible at room temperature in metals. Here, authors show that it is possible when a nanoscale twin boundary within a copper nanopillar is compressed along certain orientations, through in-situ transmission electron microscopy (left) and molecular dynamics simulation (right).

New property found in unusual crystalline materials

Materials with a special kind of boundary between crystal grains can deform in unexpected ways.

October 25, 2017

The 2017 MIT recipients of the U.S. Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowships are (clockwise from top left) Peter Ahrens, Miriam Rathbun, Annie Yuan Wei, and Kevin Silmore.

Grad students earn Department of Energy computational fellowships

Ahrens, Rathbun, Silmore, and Wei are recognized for tackling complex science and engineering problems of national importance.

October 11, 2017

MIT researchers have developed an “air-breathing” battery that could store electricity for very long durations for about a third the price of current technologies, with minimal location restraints and zero emissions.

Making renewable power more viable for the grid

“Air-breathing” battery can store electricity for months, for about a fifth the cost of current technologies.

October 11, 2017

Fast-moving magnetic particles could enable new form of data storage

Recently discovered phenomenon could provide a way to bypass the limits to Moore’s Law.

October 2, 2017

“I like to say I build fancy thermometers. That’s my job,” says Alex Creely, a graduate student in nuclear science and engineering who works in the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT.

Alex Creely: Bridging the simulation vs. reality gap

Nuclear science and engineering graduate student receives Department of Energy Innovation Award for his work on plasma turbulence.

September 29, 2017

The Compact Muon Solenoid is a general-purpose detector at the Large Hadron Collider.

First open-access data from large collider confirm subatomic particle patterns

CERN Open Data Portal results reveal predictable patterns from colliding high-energy protons.

September 29, 2017

In this diagram, the atomic lattice of a crystal of barium oxide is depicted, with atoms of oxygen and barium represented by red and gray spheres. A neutral oxygen vacancy, a place where an oxygen atom should appear in the lattice but is instead replaced by two electrons, is represented by the yellow shape, which depicts the charge density of those electrons. At left, the crystal is seen with no e...

New analysis explains role of defects in metal oxides

Harnessing these imperfections could have implications for computer memory and energy conversion.

September 21, 2017

Left to right: Infinite Cooling researchers graduate student Karim Khalil, associate professor of mechanical engineering Kripa Varanasi, and graduate student Maher Damak.

Infinite Cooling wins Cleantech University Prize competition

Startup is meeting global environmental needs by changing the way power plants use water.

August 8, 2017

A new technique boosts the power output of tiny, chip-mounted terahertz lasers by 88 percent.

Tiny terahertz laser could be used for imaging, chemical detection

New design boosts the power output of the best-performing chip-scale terahertz laser by 80 percent.

August 8, 2017

Researchers have discovered how moss and green algae can protect themselves from too much sun.

Harnessing the right amount of sunshine

Study reveals the mechanisms of a protein that helps moss and green algae defend against too much light.

July 17, 2017

“In the Southwest, water availability for irrigation is already a concern,” says Elodie Blanc, a research scientist at MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. “If we mitigate, this could prevent added stress associated with climate change and a severe decrease in runoff in the western United States. But it will be even worse in the future if we don’t do anything a...

Climate change to deplete some US water basins, reduce irrigated crop yields

By 2050, the Southwest will produce significantly less cotton and forage, researchers report.

July 11, 2017

Researchers have observed a novel phenomenon in sheets of tantalum arsenide that mimics the behavior of theorized (but never observed) particles called Weyl fermions.

Exploring elusive high-energy particles in an unusual metal

Exotic metal displays behavior that could lead to new infrared detectors.

May 30, 2017

“Our whole goal was to monitor how materials evolve when exposed to radiation,” associate professor Michael Short explains, “but do it in a way that’s online,” without requiring samples to be extracted from that environment and tested in outside devices.

New method enables real-time monitoring of materials during irradiation

Technique will enable continuous measurement of damage to materials in high-radiation environments.