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Driving Skyrmions Along a Racetrack

Researchers have demonstrated the ability to generate stable skyrmion lattices and to drive trains of individual skyrmions by short current pulses along a magnetic racetrack at speeds exceeding 100 m/s, as required for spintronic applications. Read more »

Jay Nix, Beamline Director for the Molecular Biology Consortium

Jay Nix started started the user program at Beamline 4.2.2 back in 2004, shortly after the Molecular Biology Consortium built the beamline. The macromolecular crystallography beamline is a little different than most at the ALS because it’s privately managed by a consortium of 10 Midwest universities that pooled their money together to build the beamline, and now continue to do so to maintain it. Nix serves about 50 labs, around 200 users, mostly remotely. Read more »

A New Universal Parameter for Superconductivity

Scientists have been researching high-temperature (high-Tc) superconductors for decades with the goal of finding materials that express superconducting capabilities at room temperature, which would be a requirement for practical and cost-effective applications. The newest materials to gain scientific interest are iron-based superconductors, and the latest research from the ALS on these materials indicates a new factor that determines their superconductivity. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Exploring the Repeat-Protein Universe

Researchers have published a landmark study that used both crystallography and SAXS to validate computationally designed structures of novel proteins with repeated motifs. The results show that the protein-folding universe is far larger than realized, opening up a wide array of new possibilities for biomolecular engineering. Read more »PPT-icon-35 PDF-icon-35

Direct Observation of Localized Radial Oxygen Migration in Functioning Tantalum Oxide Memristors

As information bits of 0s and 1s are stored in crosspoint tantalum oxide memristors, or resistive random access memory (RRAM) cells, nanoscale-resolution in operando x-ray transmission spectromicroscopy is used to directly observe oxygen migration and clustering, revealing an important operation and failure mechanism of RRAM, a frontrunner technology for next-generation computer memory. Read more »

Superlattices Patterned by Polymers

Scientists have shown that self-assembled superlattices, made up of nanoparticles with polymer chains grafted onto their surfaces (“hairy nanoparticles,” or polymer “brushes”), can be tailored to exhibit desired characteristics for applications ranging from nano- to biotechnology. Read more »

On the Way to Unlimited Energy

With the help of four different ALS beamlines, scientists were able to understand and improve the morphology of the main device structure in organic photovoltaic cells. Read more »PPT-icon-35

Improving Anti-Influenza Medications

Protein crystallography at ALS Beamline 8.3.1 helped scientists understand the M2 proton-channel structure from the influenza A virus, an understanding that is needed to design better anti-influenza medications. Read more »

Cobber Lam, ALS Systems Administrator

Cobber Lam started working at Berkeley Lab 10 years ago as a student assistant, while attending college at Cal State East Bay. Within two months, he was assigned to the ALS and has stayed put ever since. He used to be matrixed via IT, but last year he became a direct ALS employee. ALS IT support is divided between Lam and Tim Kellogg, with Lam being more forward-facing, dealing with users and staff, and Kellogg working on the back-end mostly with controls and operations groups. Read more »