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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Destruction of Weyl nodes and a new state in tantalum arsenide above 80 teslas
17 September 2018
Weyl metals such as tantalum arsenide (TaAs) are predicted to have novel properties arising from a chirality of their electron spins. Scientists induced an imbalance between the left- and right-handed spin states, resulting in a topologically protected current. This was the first time this phenomenon, known as the chiral anomaly, has been observed.
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Pinning and melting of a quantum Wigner crystal
17 September 2018
This research established experimental evidence for the long sought-after transition of a small, two-dimensional sheet of electrons to a solid state.
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Making a non-heme oxoiron(IV) complex a better oxidant
21 August 2018
This work investigates a series of oxoiron complexes that serve as models towards understanding the mechanism of catalysis for certain iron-containing enzymes.
Featured Publications
Destruction of Weyl nodes and a New State in TaAs above 80 Teslas, B.J. Ramshaw, et al., Nature Communications, 9: 2217 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online
Pinning and melting of a quantum Wigner crystal, T. Knighton, et al., Phys Rev B, 97, 085135 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online
Manipulating the ferryl tilt in a non-heme oxoiron(IV) complex that makes the complex a better oxidant, W. Rasheed, et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 57, 9387-9391 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online
1.1 billion-year-old porphyrins evidence photosynthesis 600 million years earlier than previously established, N. Guineli, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 115, 1-9 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online
Metabolic assessment of migraines using ultra-high magnetic fields, N. Abad, et al., Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 79(3):1266-1275, (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online
Imaging pH levels with a CoII2 MRI Probe, A. E. Thorarinsdottir, et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 139, 15836–15847 (2017) See Science Highlight or Read online
Dirac fermions detected via quantum oscillations, T. Terashima, et al., Physical Review X, 8, 011014 (2018) See Science Highlight or Read online
Phase diagram of URu2–xFexSi2 in high magnetic fields, S. Ran, et al., PNAS, 114, 37, 9826 (2017) See Science Highlight or Read online