Experiments at the ALS revealed a hidden electronic phase that breaks time-reversal symmetry before a charge-density wave forms in a kagome metal. Because hidden electronic order can compete with or shape superconductivity, this finding helps guide the search for high-temperature, unconventional superconducting materials. Read more »
Microscopy Reveals How Early Human Diets Led to Tougher Teeth
Microscopy at the ALS revealed that nanocrystal misorientation in tooth enamel tracked major dietary shifts in primates, contributing to enamel’s resilience. These structural details provide a blueprint for developing tougher, crack-resistant bioinspired materials, next-generation structural ceramics, and coatings. Read more »
Burning Questions: How Heat Shield Materials Evolve Under Extreme Heat
Superlight ablator materials are critical for protecting spacecraft under the extreme heat of atmospheric reentry. Researchers combined in situ X-ray microcomputed tomography at the ALS with super-resolution techniques to characterize the microstructural evolution of these materials during heating. Read more »
Revealing the Electronic Signature of Unusual Magnetism
Experiments at the ALS showed how magnetic Co atoms sandwiched between TaS2 layers reshape the material’s electronic structure. Understanding how unusual magnetic order influences electron movements in new quantum material CoxTaS2 could guide its use in advanced quantum technologies based on spintronics and valleytronics. Read more »
X-Ray Magnetometer Advances Characterization of Magnetic Nanofilms
Using X-ray interferometry at the ALS, researchers characterized key optical and functional properties of magnetic materials with high sensitivity. This novel magnetometer scheme could accelerate discovery of magnetic thin film materials with broad applications across modern technology. Read more »
A New Framework for Designing Synthetic Enzymes
Researchers engineered protein-like polymers that replicate complex enzyme functions. This work, which was verified using X-ray characterization techniques at the ALS, offers a cost-effective, scalable approach that paves the way for functional materials in biomedicine, energy, and manufacturing. Read more »
Infrared Nanospectroscopy Reveals Behaviors of Ionic Liquids
Researchers used infrared spectroscopy at the ALS to detect the molecular behaviors of ionic liquids—which serve as high performance electrolytes in energy storage devices—under varying charge bias conditions. Their insights define a direction for targeted design of ionic liquid-based electrolytes with optimized properties for energy storage applications. Read more »
Local Disorder Impacts a Quantum Material’s Electronic States
Machine learning tools and experiments at the ALS enabled the identification of defect-rich regions in single-crystalline Co3Sn2S2 that link to how surface electrons move. Atom-level understanding of how the surface electronic properties of a magnetic semimetal can be tuned could guide its use in advanced technologies like spintronics and catalysis. Read more »
Altermagnetism All the Way Down
Altermagnets are an emerging class of magnetic materials that offer the potential for energy-efficient, high-density memory chips. Researchers at Penn State, UC Santa Barbara, and the ALS demonstrated that characteristic altermagnetic band splitting in chromium antimonide is evident in thin films relevant for real-world device application. Read more »
Dynamic Surface Restructuring in Ag–Cu Boosts CO2 Conversion
Multimodal in situ x-ray experiments at the ALS revealed how copper–silver nanoparticle catalysts evolve during CO2 photoreduction. The findings, which demonstrate dynamic catalyst restructuring at the atomic level, provide crucial insights for enhancing the selectivity and efficiency of CO2 conversion into high-value chemicals. Read more » 
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