In the final ATAP Newsletter for 2025, we invite you to learn about a new imaging technology capable of mapping the mineral composition of planets and asteroids with unprecedented detail, and methods for quantum information science, including high-energy ion beams that create chains of color-center qubits in diamond, and laser-induced enhancements to quantum emitters embedded in silicon.
A powerful new imager aims to reveal the elemental composition of planets and asteroids in 3D. Created by researchers from ATAP’s Fusion Science & Ion Beam Technology Program, in partnership with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the In-Situ Nuclear Spectrometer with 3D Resolution, or INSPECT3R, could enhance our understanding of the Moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies’ geochemical profiles, as well as help us search for signs of life. INSPECT3R might also improve our knowledge of Earth’s soil geochemistry, leading to better land management.
Researchers from our Berkeley Accelerator Controls & Instrumentation and Fusion Science & Ion Beam Technology Programs, along with their collaborators, have shown that high-energy ion beams can produce self-aligned, one-dimensional chains of closely spaced color-center qubits in diamond. These color-center qubits could form the basis for scalable qubit arrays for future quantum computers, serve as the backbone for a quantum internet, and be used in sensing applications to advance fusion research.
New research provides the first detailed analysis of how the optical properties of T centers in silicon change over time after interacting with laser light. T centers, tiny defects introduced into silicon, show useful quantum features for applications in quantum information processing and quantum communication. The work, a collaboration between ATAP, the Lab’s Materials Sciences Division, and the University of California, Berkeley, could lead to significant improvements in the efficiency of T centers, paving the way for their use in quantum networks.
The first BeamNetUS user experiment at our BELLA Center has been completed. Led by the Plasma Accelerators group at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron National Laboratory in Hamburg, Germany, the experiment used BELLA’s Hundred Terawatt Thomson facility to explore laser guiding concepts for high-quality future laser-plasma accelerators.
Congratulations to Jose Luis Rudeiros Fernández of the ATAP Superconducting Magnet Program and to the BELLA Center 10-GeV Core Team for being honored at the 2025 Berkeley Lab Director’s Awards. The ceremony was held at the Lab’s Building 50 Auditorium on November 12, 2025.
Also, congratulations to AMP’s Axel Huebl, who was a co-recipient of the 2025 HPCwire Readers’ Choice Award for Best HPC Collaboration, and BELLA’s Lieselotte Obst-Huebl for being named coordinator for outreach and user engagement at BeamNetUS.
Finally, as we get ready for the holidays, remember to stay safe and healthy during winter weather hazards.
I wish everyone a safe, happy, and relaxing winter break, and I look forward to a new year of exciting progress in particle accelerator science and applications.
Written by Carl A. Williams or other authors as credited.
For more information on ATAP News articles, contact caw@lbl.gov.
