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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MagLab FAIR Data Empowers 'Data Users'
10 June 2021
A new type of MagLab user has emerged: A Data User – who accesses MagLab data from repositories to advance individual research goals. In this highlight, the original work was a benchmark study on the performance of the 21T FT-ICR system that produced a set of data on colorectal cancer cells that has become a 'gold standard' for testing new data analysis algorithms and software packages. The original data set was later used in a poster and two papers in alignment with the MagLab's FAIR data initiative.
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HTS NMR Probe Tracks Metabolism Cycles During Insect Dormancy
28 May 2021
An insect's ability to survive anaerobic conditions (without oxygen) during winter pupation occurs through periodic cycling of aerobic respiration pathways needed to recharge energy and clear waste. The cellular mechanisms at play during these brief near-arousal periods can provide clues to help improve the success in storage and transplant of human organs.
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Exchange Bias Between Coexisting Antiferromagnetic and Spin-Glass Orders
28 May 2021
A pane of window glass and a piece of quartz are both are transparent to light, but their atomic structure is very different. Quartz is crystalline at the atomic level while window glass is amorphous. This can also occur with magnetism at the atomic level in solids containing magnetic states such as antiferromagnetism (ordered) and spin-glass (disorded). This work describes the interaction (exchange bias) between ordered and disordered magnetic states and how the magnetic properties of the material are altered as a result.
Featured Publications
HTS NMR Probe Tracks Metabolism Cycles During Insect Dormancy, C. Chen, et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), 118 (1), 603118 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online
Exchange bias due to coupling between coexisting antiferromagnetic and spin-glass orders, E. Maniv, et al., Nature Physics, 17, 1-7 (2021), See Science Highlight or Read online
First Science from the 75T Duplex Magnet, D. N. Nguyen, et al., IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 30 (4), 0500105 (2020), See Science Highlight or Read online
Structure of Boron-Based Catalysts from 11B Solid-State NMR at 35.2T, R.W. Dorn, et al., American Chemical Society Catalysis, 10, 13852-13866 (2020), See Science Highlight or Read online
Sunlight Produces Water-Soluble Chemicals from Asphalt, S. F. Niles, et al., Environmental Science and Technology, 54 (24), 8830-8836 (2020), Dataset, See Science Highlight or Read online
Tracking the Potential for Damage in Nb3Sn Superconducting Coils from the Hardness of Surrounding Copper, S. Balachandran, et al., Superconductor Science and Technology, 34, 025001 (2021) See Science Highlight or Read online
Broadening Participation in DC Field Facility by Bridging a Research Infrastructure Gap, C. Dhital, et al., Physical Review B, 102, 224408 (2020) See Science Highlight or Read online
Using Magnetic Resonance to Probe Lipid Synthesis in Response to Ketogenic Diet , M.S. Muyyarikkandy, et al., The FASEB Journal, 2020;00:1–18 See Science Highlight or Read online
Spontaneous "Valley Magnetization" in an Atomically-thin Semiconductor, J. Li, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 125, 147602 (2020) See Science Highlight or Read online
Spin-Charge Interconversion at Near-Terahertz Frequencies, P. Vaidya, Science, 368, 160-165 (2020) See Science Highlight or Read online
Tunable Weyl Fermions in Chiral Tellurene in High Magnetic Fields, G. Qiu, Nature Nanotechnology, 15, 585–591 (2020) See Science Highlight or Read online
Deuterium Magnetic Resonance Can Detect Cancer Metabolism by Measuring the Formation of Deuterated Water, R. Mahar, Nature Scientific Reports, 10 (1), 8885 (2020) See Science Highlight or Read online