Researchers at the MagLab are making discoveries today that will lead to the technologies of tomorrow. Whether a member of one of our robust in-house research groups or one of the nearly 1,400 outside scientists who do experiments here annually, MagLab researchers understand how high magnetic fields lead to making big discoveries.
Seeking the most powerful magnetic fields on Earth, scientists and engineers from across the world come to the MagLab to explore promising new materials, solve energy challenges and grow our understanding of living things. This kind of research has played a critical role in developing new technologies used every day – from electric lights and computers to motors, plastics, high-speed trains and MRI. Find out more by exploring our research initiatives, learning about our interdisciplinary research, or digging deeper into the hundreds of publications generated annually by MagLab researchers.
Research Initiatives
MATERIALS
Scientists use our magnets to explore semiconductors, superconductors, newly-grown crystals, buckyballs and materials from the natural world — research that reveals the secret workings of materials and empowers us to develop new technologies.
ENERGY
Scientists here are working to optimize petroleum refining, advance potential bio-fuels such as pine needles and algae, and fundamentally change the way we store and deliver energy by developing better batteries.
LIFE
With the world’s strongest MRI magnet, scientists here study everything from living animals to individual cells, from proteins to disease-fighting molecules found in plants and animals — work that could improve treatment of AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases.
Latest Science Highlight
-
Magic Gap Ratio at the "BCS Superconducting to Bose-Einstein Condensate" Crossover in the High-Tc Cuprates
14 November 2022
A defining experimental signature of a crossover in the strength of the pairing interactions from the weak coupling BCS to the strong coupling Bose-Einstein condensation limit has been discovered in high temperature superconductors.
-
17O Labeling Reveals Paired Active Sites in Zeolite Catalysts
14 November 2022
Zeolite catalysts are critical to generating the molecules that provide the building blocks of society’s energy and materials needs. Discerning a clear atomic-level picture of the active sites remains challenging for most current technologies, but here we show that solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) methods coupled with ultra-high magnetic field instruments, can and has provided extremely useful information for catalyst development.
-
Pavement Sealant Leaches Environmental Contaminants
18 October 2022
New research shows that high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found in coal tar pavement sealants are oxidized into toxic, water-soluble compounds by sunlight and subsequently washed into the environment by rainwater, polluting natural water systems, negatively impacting marine ecosystems and public health.
Featured Publications
Pavement Sealant Leaches Environmental Contaminants, T. Glattke, et al., Environmental Science and Technology, (2022), See Science Highlight or Read online
Fermi Surface Transforms at the Onset of the Pseudogap State in a Cuprate Superconductor, Y. Fang, et al., Nature Physics, 5, 2022 (2022), See Science Highlight or Read online
Microstructure of Glidcop AL-60, Y. Xin, et al., IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 32 (6), 7100105 (2022), See Science Highlight or Read online
Surprising Rigidity of Functionally Important Water Molecules Buried in the Lipid Headgroup Region, R. Zhang, et al., Journal of the American Chemical Society, 144, 7881-7888 (2022), See Science Highlight or Read online
NMR FAIR Data - Effects of Natural Selection on the Phase-Separation Properties of an RNA-Binding Protein in Mammals, P. Dasmeh, et al., Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2021, Vol 38 (3), 940–951, See Science Highlight or Read online
One-way Optical Transparency at Telecommunications Wavelengths, K. Park, et al., Nature Quantum Materials (npj), 7 (1), 38 (2022), See Science Highlight or Read online
The Blood Proteoform Atlas: A reference map of proteoforms in human blood cells, R. D. Melani, et al., Science, 375 (6579), 411-419, See Science Highlight or Read online
Crossover Between Strongly Coupled and Weakly Coupled Exciton Superfluids, X. Liu, et al., Science, 375 (6577), 205-209 (2022), See Science Highlight or Read online
Isolation of a Triplet Benzene Dianion, C. A. Gould, et al., Nature Chemistry, 13, 1001-1005 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online
New correlated quasiparticles in an atomically-thin semiconductor, J. Li, et al., Nano Letters, 22, 426 (2022), See Science Highlight or Read online
Magnetostriction in AlFe2B2 at 25 T Measured by X-Ray Diffraction, S. Sharma, et al., Physical Review Materials, 5, 064409 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online