Science and Technology Highlights

Shaun Kerr and Dean Rusby have refined the MeV X-ray generation of NIF’s Advanced Radiographic Capability, leading to unprecedented imaging of dense materials.
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LLNL's National Ignition Facility is the hottest place on earth for the briefest of moments during an experiment, as explained in a new paper in Physics of Plasmas

Schematic showing the setup for ion transport through a MXene membrane. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) discovered that applying an electric field to the gate can change the efficiency of the molecular transport through the membrane.
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By applying voltage to electrically control a new “transistor” membrane, LLNL researchers achieved real-time tuning of ion separations.

LLNL researchers have successfully synthesized a californium compound using polyoxometalates — large, cage-like clusters made primarily of metal and oxygen atoms. Their research was featured on a journal cover for Chemical Communications.
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LLNL chemists are using a novel nanoscale synthesis and crystallization approach to create, isolate and structurally characterize a pure californium-containing compound.

Overview of the key processes that are fundamental for understanding single-crystal battery materials.
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LLNL researchers outline how state-of-the-art computational modeling can help to unravel the fundamental relationships among battery processing, structure, properties. 

LLNL scientist Gianpaolo Carosi (right) discusses the inner workings of the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment. Expertise in this cavity technology (shown here plated in copper) is enhancing current efforts in quantum computing.
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In November, the Department of Energy Office of Science renewed the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center.

The cover of the Inorganic Chemistry journal for February 2026. The illustration shows that cerium, thorium and zirconium Keggin complexes form parallel arrangements (blue), whereas plutonium complexes organize themselves in a perpendicular fashion (pink).
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LLNL researchers and collaborators lay the foundation for understanding how POMs interact with some of the most chemically challenging actinide elements.

LLNL scientists Colin Ponce and Carolyn Fisher initiated and led a cross-disciplinary team that developed a machine-learning model to distinguish opioids from other chemicals.
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LLNL researchers aim to use a machine-learning model that can distinguish opioids from other chemicals with an accuracy over 95% in a laboratory setting. 

This artist’s conception shows the novel crossed-beam energy transfer (CBET) technique for measuring plasma conditions. The pump beam, shown with red wavelengths, is intersected by a weaker broadband probe beam, shown with multiple colors. Information about the plasma’s conditions is imprinted on to the spectrum of the probe beam via energy transferred from the pump beam via plasma waves.
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A multidisciplinary team of LLNL researchers has successfully demonstrated a potentially simpler, more accurate way to measure plasma conditions with two laser beams that cross paths. 

One of one million cislunar orbits calculated by researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The moon’s orbit is shown in light gray. The spacecraft follows the colored path over the six-year simulation period.
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In an open-access database and with publicly available code, LLNL researchers have simulated and published one million orbits in cislunar space. 

By adding a lid-like structure to a carbon nanotube, LLNL researchers mimicked how biological channels open and close to allow ion transport.
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In a recent study, LLNL researchers and collaborators engineered carbon nanotubes with openings that can reversibly open and close depending on pH.