The latest ATAP Newsletter features a compact photon source for high-resolution imaging of dense objects and for identifying nuclear materials; a novel method that could accelerate the design and operation of particle accelerators and colliders; and our researchers’ efforts to advance fusion, which promises an almost unlimited source of clean energy. It also highlights a new Berkeley Lab-led project that could accelerate the discovery and development of critical minerals for energy, industry, and national security.
Our BELLA Center researchers have used the facility’s Hundred-Terawatt laser system to produce stable photons with peak energies tunable from hundreds of keV to over 1 MeV. By colliding relativistic electrons from an LPA with an independently controlled laser pulse, the team generated highly directional, spectrally controlled radiation that could pave the way for compact, high-brightness photon sources for photonuclear diagnostics and national security applications.
New research by our Advanced Modeling Program and its collaborators at Michigan State University and Stanford University has developed an innovative method for detecting chaotic particle trajectories in circular particle accelerators. The fast, computationally efficient method detects tiny changes in a particle’s path starting point in just one or a few turns around the accelerator, rather than the thousands required by conventional methods, dramatically accelerating a critical, traditionally time-consuming step in accelerator design. The team demonstrated the method by optimizing Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source Upgrade, a next-generation synchrotron light source.
Learn how ATAP researchers have partnered with colleagues across Berkeley Lab, universities, and private companies to advance fusion research and the promise of unlimited clean energy by harnessing the Sun’s power on Earth. Our Superconducting Magnet Program has partnered with industry to build high-temperature superconducting magnets exceeding 20 tesla for magnetic confinement fusion. BELLA’s ultra-intense lasers capture split-second plasma processes relevant to inertial confinement fusion. Simulations from our Advanced Modeling Program and Berkeley Lab’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center—including emerging AI models and digital twins—model everything from the behavior of individual particles to the operation of an entire fusion reactor.
In addition to its potential as an energy source, fusion can offer insights into fundamental nuclear physics. For instance, researchers from our Fusion Science & Ion Beam Technology Program and their collaborators are exploring the fundamental physics of fusion at temperatures much lower than those used for power generation. They found that deuterium packed into palladium and titanium foils fuses at a faster rate than expected at these low energies. Understanding this effect could one day enable scientists to design materials that actively promote fusion under certain low-temperature conditions, much as a chemical catalyst speeds up a reaction.
Researchers from BELLA, in collaboration with the Lab’s Physics Division and an industry partner, recently secured funding from the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy through the Reliable Ore Characterization with Keystone Sensing initiative to develop a path toward field-deployable muon imaging technology that could accelerate critical mineral discovery and development. At the heart of the project are muons—naturally occurring subatomic particles with extraordinary penetrating power. The project aims to deliver high-flux muon beams that can be directed at potential ore bodies, producing high-resolution 3D images that could compress current mineral discovery and characterization timelines from months to hours, thereby accelerating the discovery-to-mine timeline. This could help the U.S. maintain leadership in critical mineral resources vital to energy and the economy.
Finally, as part of our long-standing tradition of nurturing the next generation of science and technology professionals essential to the DOE’s and the Lab’s mission, ATAP staff and colleagues from the Lab’s Academic Learning Internships and Faculty Training Office led guided tours for our current summer interns at BELLA and the Lab’s Advanced Light Source throughout June and July.
Written by Carl A. Williams or other authors as credited.
For more information on ATAP News articles, contact caw@lbl.gov.
