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
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Sunlight converts plastics into diverse chemical mixtures
25 October 2021
Sunlight can chemically transform plastics from consumer plastic bags into complex chemical mixtures that leach into the ocean. Understanding the impact of plastic pollution requires advanced analytical techniques that can identify transformed plastic molecules in water samples, and requires instrumentation only available at the Maglab.
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Unusual high-field state discovered in mineral atacamite
25 October 2021
Scientists at the Pulsed Field Facility recently found that applying an intense magnetic field to the mineral atacamite (a "frustrated" quantum magnet) yields unusual behavior associated with a novel state of matter known as quantum spin liquid.
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Resilient Bi-2212 Round Wire
25 October 2021
Researchers studied the mechanics of supercurrent flow in state-of-the-art Bi-2212 superconducting round wires and learned that the microstructure of the superconducting filaments is inherently resilient, work that could open the door to new opportunities to raise supercurrent capacity of Bi-2212 round wires.
Featured Publications
Unusual high-field state discovered in mineral atacamite, L. Heinze, et al., Physical Review Letters, 126 (20), 207201 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online
Sunlight converts plastics into diverse chemical mixtures, A. N. Walsh, et al., Environ. Sci. Technol., 55 (18), 12383–12392 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online
Absence of Weak-Links in Bi-2212 Round Wire, Y. Oz, et al., Phys. Rev. Materials, 5(7), 074803 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online
Advanced Microscopy for Better Nanostructural Insights in Bi-2212 Round Wires, T.A. Oloye, et al., Supercond. Sci. Technol., 34035018 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online
Restoration of breathing after drug overdose and spinal cord injuries, M.D. Sunshine, et al., Communications Biology, 4 (1), 1-15 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online
Linear-in temperature resistivity from isotropic Planckian scattering rate, G. Grissonnanche, et al., Nature, 595, 667-672 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online
Testing the Critical Current of High-Temperature-Superconducting REBCO Cables Using a Superconducting Transformer, H. Yu, et al., IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 30 (4), 5500204 (2020), See Science Highlight or Read online
New High-Magnetic-Field Thermometers for Sub-Millikelvin Temperatures, A. Woods, et al., arxiv, 2107.02387 (2020), See Science Highlight or Read online
A New Method for Understanding Dynamic Nuclear Polarization, Q. Stern, et al., Science Advances, 7 (18), eabf5735 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online
Magnetoelastic Coupling in the Multiferroic BiFeO3, T. Rõõm, et al., Phys. Rev. B, 102, 21440 (2020), See Science Highlight or Read online
Dissolved Organic Matter in Arctic Rivers: Synchronous Molecular Stability, Shifting Sources and Subsidies, M.I. Behnke, et al., Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 35, e2020GB006871 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online