News

April 27, 2026

1 MIN READ

Programming Quantum Phases Through Epitaxy

Scientific Achievement: Molecular beam epitaxy and first principles calculations demonstrate that substrate termination can be used to control the crystal phase and functional properties.Significance and Impact: Epitaxy provides a powerful “design knob” for stabilizing targeted quantum states through interfacial phase engineering, thereby enabling new technologies such as altermagnetic spintronics and multifunctional electronics.DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5c14582

September 16, 2025

1 MIN READ

Phonon Scattering Unspins Tale of Magnetism in RuO2

Scientific Achievement: Neutron and X-ray scattering show that bulk RuO₂ exhibits a highly correlated ground state without magnetic moments, despite prior claims of altermagnetism.Significance and Impact: Experimentally-constrained models that decouple electronic correlations from spins emerge that will guide the understanding of correlations in spintronics materials.DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2025.102852

January 20, 2025

1 MIN READ

Lone Electron Pairs Add New Wrinkles to Van der Waals Layered Magnets

Scientific Achievement: Discovered antiferromagnetic order, multiple phase transitions, and low cleavage energy in a unique metallic compound with active, non-bonding electrons.Significance and Impact: Provides a platform to study magnetism, transport, and the role of lone pair electrons on proximity effects and interfacial chemistry in a new metallic antiferromagnet, which may have important spintronic applications.DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.4c02671

October 10, 2024

4 MIN READ

Three ORNL researchers named 2024 American Physical Society Fellows

ORNL researchers Valentino Cooper, Howard Wilson and Jiaqiang Yan have been named Fellows of the American Physical Society, a distinction recognizing their outstanding contributions to their fields.

May 9, 2024

3 MIN READ

ORNL to Host ‘Beyond Lithium-Ion’ Conference

October 3, 2023

3 MIN READ

Forging alliances: Workshop unites ORNL, Vanderbilt University to power nanoscience collaborations

When the second collaborative ORNL-Vanderbilt University workshop took place on Sept. 18-19 at ORNL, about 70 researchers and students assembled to share thoughts concerning a broad spectrum of topics.

September 29, 2023

1 MIN READ

Oxygen control irons out cation disorder

Scientific Achievement: Neutron diffraction and x-ray spectroscopies showed that fine-tuning oxygen content using metal oxalate precursors and MnO2 as oxygen generator stabilizes divalent iron and manganese in a rock-salt high entropy oxide (HEO).Significance and Impact: Demonstrating the stability of divalent Fe in a rock-salt HEO provides a pathway toward novel crystalline materials with targeted cation disorder. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi8809

April 25, 2023

4 MIN READ

Cooper appointed to DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee

Valentino “Tino” Cooper, a scientist at ORNL, has been appointed to DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee for a three-year term. Cooper’s research elucidates the fundamental understanding of advanced materials for next-generation energy and information technologies.

November 16, 2022

1 MIN READ

Translational symmetries constrain how phonons interact in layered magnets

Scientific Achievement: First-principles calculations and neutron scattering reveal phase symmetry constraints for phonons in simple geometries and give insights into dynamical stability of layered quantum magnets.Significance and Impact: Incorporating translational symmetry into dynamics of conventional structures advances understanding of spin-phonon and other quasiparticle interactions important for quantum and thermal functionalities.DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2022.118390

August 30, 2022

4 MIN READ

ORNL to lead new center on polymer electrolytes for energy storage

ORNL has been selected to lead an Energy Frontier Research Center, or EFRC, focused on polymer electrolytes for next-generation energy storage devices such as fuel cells and solid-state electric vehicle batteries.

March 4, 2022

1 MIN READ

Modeling Trailblazes Synthesis of Novel Pyrochlores

Scientific Achievement: Theory and simulations reveal routes to eliminate competing impurities and pave the way for the synthesis of novel multi-component oxides. Significance and Impact: This method for predicting impurity phases and cation disorder as a function of oxygen partial pressure and temperature enables future synthesis of metastable phases with tailored ion and thermal transport.DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.1c02361

March 1, 2022

1 MIN READ

Black History Month: Materials scientist Cooper shares a ‘hidden figure’ in chemistry

When The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS) asked Valentino Cooper, a section head in ORNL’s Materials Science and Technology Division, to coauthor a profile of Bettye Washington Greene, a “hidden figure” in chemistry, he did not disappoint.