At the 天美影视传媒 Harris Hydraulics Lab, an odd scene plays out. Over and over again, researchers from the UW and the (PNNL) pass a small rubber model of a marine animal through a large tank filled with flowing water and fitted with a spinning turbine. On some runs, the model bonks against the turbine blades; on others, it receives a glancing blow or sails past undisturbed. When bonks or knicks occur, a small collision sensor on one of the turbine鈥檚 blades detects the impacts and plots the interactions in a computer program.

The researchers are repeatedly simulating something that they hope will rarely happen in the wild: a collision between marine wildlife like a seabird, seal, fish or whale 鈥� or submerged debris like logs 鈥� and an underwater turbine.聽

鈥淲e want to make sure we鈥檙e minimizing the chances of a collision in the first place,鈥� said Aidan Hunt, a senior research engineer in mechanical engineering at the UW and member of the (PMEC). 鈥淏ut if a collision were to occur, we want to be able to detect it, and potentially avoid it, in real time. The available evidence suggests that collisions are rare, but we鈥檙e taking a 鈥榯rust-but-verify鈥� approach.鈥�

Marine energy 鈥� power harvested from tides, waves and currents 鈥� has enormous potential as a clean, renewable resource. But more information is needed about how large, commercial installations of underwater turbines or power-generating buoys could affect marine wildlife, whether through increased noise in the environment, habitat change or direct interactions with equipment.聽

The marine collision experiments are part of the , a collection of projects led by PNNL to study the environmental impact of marine energy.聽

The work at Harris Hydraulics follows a by PNNL and the UW Applied Physics Lab using a four-foot-tall prototype turbine installed at the entrance to Sequim Bay. In that study, researchers trained an underwater camera on the turbine for 109 days and then catalogued every instance of an animal approaching or interacting with the turbine. The camera captured more than 1,000 instances of fish, birds and seals approaching the turbine blades. There were only four collisions, and all were small fish.聽

鈥淭his study was a first step, but a promising one,鈥� said co-author , a research scientist at the UW Applied Physics Lab. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 see any endangered species in our study, and the risk of collision for seals and sea birds seemed to be quite low. We鈥檙e excited to get back out there with the camera and learn even more.鈥�

The Sequim Bay experiment generated hours of valuable data, but that degree of intense monitoring may not be practical in large commercial installations in the future. Cheaper impact sensors, like the ones logging bath toy impacts at Harris Hydraulics, could be a solution, researchers say.聽聽

The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy鈥檚 Hydropower & Hydrokinetics Office, through the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory鈥檚 Triton Initiative and the TEAMER program.

For more information, contact Hunt at ahunt94@uw.edu or Emma Cotter at emma.cotter@pnnl.gov.

Teeth are essential for helping people break down the food they eat, and are protected by enamel, which helps them withstand the large amount of stress they experience as people chew away. Unlike other materials in the body, enamel has no way to repair damage, which means that as we age, it risks becoming weaker with time.

Researchers are interested in understanding how enamel changes with age so that they can start to develop methods that can keep teeth happier and healthier for longer.

A research team at the 天美影视传媒 and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory examined the atomic composition of enamel samples from two human teeth 鈥� one from a 22-year-old and one from a 56-year-old. The sample from the older person contained higher levels of the ion fluoride, which is often found in drinking water and toothpaste, where it鈥檚 added as a way to help protect enamel (though its addition to drinking water has recently been a ).

The team Dec. 19 in Communications Materials. While this is a proof-of-concept study, these results have implications for how fluoride is taken up and integrated into enamel as people age, the researchers said.

“We know that teeth get more brittle as people age, especially near the very outer surface, which is where cracks start,” said lead author , UW doctoral student in materials science and engineering and a doctoral intern at PNNL. “There are a number of factors behind this 鈥� one of which is the composition of the mineral content. We’re interested in understanding exactly how the mineral content is changing. And if you want to see that, you have to look at the scale of atoms.”

Enamel is composed mostly of minerals that are arranged in repetitive structures that are ten thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair.

“In the past, everything that we’ve done in my lab is on a much larger scale 鈥� maybe a tenth the size of a human hair,” said co-senior author , UW professor of materials science and engineering. “On that scale, it’s impossible to see the distribution of the relative mineral and organic portions of the enamel crystalline structure.”

To examine the atomic composition of these structures, Grimm worked with , a materials scientist at PNNL, to use a technique called “atom probe tomography,” which allows researchers to get a 3D map of each atom in space in a sample.

The team made three samples from each of the two teeth in the study and then compared differences in element composition in three different areas of the tiny, repetitive structures: the core of a structure, a “shell” coating the core, and the space between the shells.

In the samples from the older tooth, fluoride levels were higher across most of the regions. But they were especially high in the shell regions.

“We are getting exposed to fluoride through our toothpaste and drinking water and no one has been able to track that in an actual tooth at this scale. Is that fluoride actually being incorporated over time? Now we’re starting to be able to paint that picture,” said co-author , a postdoctoral researcher in both the oral health sciences and the materials science and engineering departments at the UW. “Of course, the ideal sample would be a tooth from someone who had documented every time they drank fluoridated versus non-fluoridated water, as well as how much acidic food and drink they consumed, but that’s not really feasible. So this is a starting point.”

The key to this research, the team said, is the interdisciplinary nature of the work.

“I am a metallurgist by training and didn’t start to study biomaterials until 2015 when I met Dwayne. We started to talk about the potential synergy between our areas of expertise 鈥� how we can look at these small scales to start to understand how biomaterials behave,” Devaraj said. “And then in 2019 Jack joined the group as a doctoral student and helped us look at this problem in depth. Interdisciplinary science can facilitate innovation, and hopefully we’ll continue to address really interesting questions surrounding what happens to teeth as we age.”

One thing the researchers are interested in studying is how protein composition of enamel changes over time.

“We set out trying to identify the distribution of the organic content in enamel, and whether the tiny amount of protein present in enamel actually goes away as we age. But when we looked at these results, one of the things that was most obvious was actually this distribution of fluoride around the crystalline structure,” Arola said. “I don’t think we have a public service announcement yet about how aging affects teeth in general. The jury is still out on that. The message from dentistry is pretty strong: You should try to utilize fluoride or fluoridated products to be able to fight the potential for tooth decay.”

, a postdoctoral researcher at PNNL, is also a co-author on this paper.聽This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Colgate-Palmolive Company and a distinguished graduate research program between PNNL and UW.

For more information, contact Grimm at jckgrmm@uw.edu, Arola at darola@uw.edu and Renteria at crentb@uw.edu. For questions specifically for Arun Devaraj please contact Karyn Hede at karyn.hede@pnnl.gov.

In an experiment akin to stop-motion photography, an international team of scientists has isolated the energetic movement of an electron in a sample of liquid water 鈥� while 鈥渇reezing鈥� the motion of the much larger atom it orbits.

The finding reveals the immediate response of an electron when hit with an X-ray, an essential step in understanding the effects of radiation exposure on objects and people. The results, Feb. 15 in the journal Science, provide a new window into the electronic structure of molecules in the liquid phase on a timescale previously unattainable with X-rays.

鈥淲hat happens to an atom when it is struck by ionizing radiation, like an X-ray? Seeing the earliest stages of this process has long been a missing piece in understanding how radiation affects matter,鈥� said co-senior author , the Larry R. Dalton Endowed Chair in Chemistry at the 天美影视传媒 and a laboratory fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. 鈥淭his new technique for the first time shows us that missing piece and opens the door to seeing the steps where so much complex 鈥� and interesting 鈥� chemistry occurs!鈥�

Li co-led the team behind this breakthrough with co-senior authors , a distinguished fellow at Argonne National Laboratory and professor at the University of Chicago, and , professor at the German Electron Synchrotron and the University of Hamburg. The team received critical funding and support from the , a Department of Energy center headquartered at PNNL.

The collaboration used a combination of experiments and theoretical insights to see in real time what happens when ionizing radiation from an X-ray source hits matter. Revealing these moments is not as simple as snapping a photo. Subatomic particles move so fast that capturing their actions requires using a probe that can measure time in attoseconds. There are more attoseconds in a second than there have been seconds in the history of the universe.

鈥淯ntil now radiation chemists could only resolve events at the picosecond timescale, a million times slower than an attosecond,鈥� said Young. 鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of like saying 鈥業 was born and then I died.鈥� You鈥檇 like to know what happens in between. That鈥檚 what we are now able to do.鈥�

The team 鈥� under the guidance of Young and co-lead author , a postdoctoral researcher at Argonne 鈥� set out to develop a whole new experimental approach to achieve attosecond resolution using X-rays. Attosecond X-ray pulses are only available in a handful of specialized facilities worldwide, so the team partnered with scientists at the in California to use the facility鈥檚 Linac Coherent Light Source for developing attosecond X-ray free-electron lasers, with key input from scientists at PNNL.

The resulting technique, AX-ATAS 鈥� or all X-ray attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy 鈥� employed two delicate X-ray pulses: One to 鈥渆xcite鈥� its target matter and one to probe how the excited matter responded. This approach would theoretically allow the scientists to 鈥渨atch鈥� electrons energized by X-rays as they move into an excited state, all before the bulkier atomic nucleus has time to move. They chose the liquid water as their test case for an experiment.

鈥淎nd on our first experiment, it worked!鈥� said Li. 鈥淏ut the signal we picked up in the data was 鈥榗onvoluted.鈥� It turns out that, in this transient snapshot, we were probing so many quantum states that we had to develop a completely new computational analysis method to understand the data.鈥�

Quantum mechanical principles underlie the behavior of all matter, but its signatures are often hidden in experiments like these. But, using AX-ATAS at the attosecond timescale, the scientists were picking up quantum-level details 鈥� and needed new methods to make sense of the data.

To that end, Li, a theoretical chemist, worked with co-lead author Lixin Lu 鈥� who conducted this research as a UW doctoral student in chemistry and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University 鈥� to reproduce the signals observed at SLAC. The German Electron Synchrotron-based team under Santra and co-lead author Swarnendu Bhattacharyya, a postdoctoral researcher, modelled the liquid water response to attosecond X-rays to verify that the observed signal was indeed confined to the attosecond timescale.

鈥淯sing the Hyak supercomputer at the 天美影视传媒, we developed a cutting-edge computational chemistry technique that enabled detailed characterization of the transient high-energy quantum states in water,鈥� said Li, who is also UW Associate Vice Provost for research cyberinfrastructure and member faculty at the UW Clean Energy Institute. 鈥淭his methodological breakthrough yielded a pivotal advancement in the quantum-level understanding of ultrafast chemical transformation, with exceptional accuracy and atomic-level detail.鈥�

The team鈥檚 analysis resolved a long-standing scientific debate about whether X-ray signals seen in previous experiments are the result of hydrogen atom dynamics or different structural 鈥渕otifs鈥� of water. The experiments showed no evidence for two structural motifs in ambient liquid water.

鈥淏asically, what people were seeing in previous experiments was the blur caused by moving hydrogen atoms,鈥� said Young. 鈥淲e were able to eliminate that movement by doing all of our recording before the atoms had time to move.鈥�

The current investigation builds upon the new science of attosecond physics, . Working at the attosecond timescale will allow the researchers to understand complex radiation-induced chemistry at a fundamental level. This team initially came together to develop tools to understand the effect of prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation on the chemicals found in nuclear waste.

The researchers envision the current study as the beginning of a whole new direction for attosecond science.

鈥�The methodology we developed permits the study of the origin and evolution of reactive species produced by radiation-induced processes, such as encountered in space travel, cancer treatments, nuclear reactors and legacy waste,鈥� said Young.

Co-authors on the paper are Carolyn Pearce of PNNL and Washington State University; Kai Li of the University of Chicago and Argonne; Emily Nienhuis of PNNL; Giles Doumy and R.D. Schaller at Argonne; Ludger Inhester of the German Electron Synchrotron and the Hamburg Centre for Ultrafast Imaging; and S. Moeller, M.F. Lin, G. Dakovski, D.J. Hoffman, D. Garratt, Kirk Larsen, J.D. Koralek, C.Y. Hampton, D. Cesar, Joseph Duris, Z. Zhang, Nicholas Sudar, James Cryan and A. Marinelli at SLAC. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the German Research Foundation and the German Electron Synchrotron.

For more information, contact Li at xsli@uw.edu.

Adapted from a by PNNL.

Researchers have discovered that light 鈥斅爄n the form of a laser 鈥斅燾an trigger a form of magnetism in a normally nonmagnetic material. This magnetism centers on the behavior of electrons. These subatomic particles have an electronic property called 鈥渟pin,鈥� which has a potential application in quantum computing. The researchers found that electrons within the material became oriented in the same direction when illuminated by photons from a laser.

The experiment, led by scientists at the 天美影视传媒, the University of Hong Kong and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, was April 20 in Nature.

By controlling and aligning electron spins at this level of detail and accuracy, this platform could have applications in the field of quantum simulation, according to co-senior author , a Boeing Distinguished Professor at the UW in the Department of Physics and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

鈥淚n this system, we can use photons essentially to control the 鈥榞round state鈥� properties 鈥斅爏uch as magnetism 鈥斅爋f charges trapped within the semiconductor material,鈥� said Xu, who is also a faculty researcher with the UW鈥檚聽, the , and the . 鈥淭his is a necessary level of control for developing certain types of 鈥斅爋r 鈥榪uantum bits鈥� 鈥斅爁or and other applications.鈥�

Xu, whose research team spearheaded the experiments, led the study with co-senior author Wang Yao, professor of physics at the University of Hong Kong, whose team worked on the theory underpinning the results. Other UW faculty members involved in this study are co-authors , a UW professor of physics and of materials science and engineering who also holds a joint appointment at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and , a UW professor of chemistry, director of the , and faculty member in the Clean Energy Institute and the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute.

The team worked with ultrathin sheets 鈥斅爀ach just three layers of atoms thick 鈥斅爋f tungsten diselenide and tungsten disulfide. Both are semiconductor materials, so named because electrons move through them at a rate between that of a fully conducting metal and an insulator, with potential uses in photonics and solar cells. Researchers stacked the two sheets to form a 鈥渕oir茅 superlattice,鈥� a stacked structure made up of repeating units.

Stacked sheets like these are powerful platforms for quantum physics and materials research because the superlattice structure can hold excitons in place. Excitons are bound pairs of 鈥渆xcited鈥� electrons and their associated positive charges, and scientists can measure how their properties and behavior change in different superlattice configurations.

The researchers were studying the exciton properties within the material when they made the surprising discovery that light triggers a key magnetic property within the normally nonmagnetic material. Photons provided by the laser 鈥渆xcited鈥� excitons within the laser beam鈥檚 path, and these excitons induced a type of long-range correlation among other electrons, with their spins all orienting in the same direction.

鈥淚t鈥檚 as if the excitons within the superlattice had started to 鈥榯alk鈥� to spatially separated electrons,鈥� said Xu. 鈥淭hen, via excitons, the electrons established exchange interactions, forming what鈥檚 known as an 鈥榦rdered state鈥� with aligned spins.鈥�

The spin alignment that the researchers witnessed within the superlattice is a characteristic of ferromagnetism, the form of magnetism intrinsic to materials like iron. It is normally absent from tungsten diselenide and tungsten disulfide. Each repeating unit within the moir茅 superlattice is essentially acting like a to 鈥渢rap鈥� an electron spin, said Xu. Trapped electron spins that can 鈥渢alk鈥� to each other, as these can, have been suggested as the basis for a type of qubit, the basic unit for quantum computers that could harness the unique properties of quantum mechanics for computation.

In a separate published Nov. 25 in Science, Xu and his collaborators found new magnetic properties in moir茅 superlattices formed by ultrathin sheets of chromium triiodide. Unlike the tungsten diselenide and tungsten disulfide, chromium triiodide harbors intrinsic magnetic properties, even as a single atomic sheet. Stacked chromium triiodide layers formed alternating magnetic domains: one that is ferromagnetic 鈥斅爓ith spins all aligned in the same direction 鈥斅燼nd another that is 鈥渁ntiferromagnetic,鈥� where spins point in opposite directions between adjacent layers of the superlattice and essentially 鈥渃ancel each other out,鈥� according to Xu. That discovery also illuminates relationships between a material鈥檚 structure and its magnetism that could propel future advances in computing, data storage and other fields.

鈥淚t shows you the magnetic 鈥榮urprises鈥� that can be hiding within moir茅 superlattices formed by 2D quantum materials,鈥� said Xu. 鈥淵ou can never be sure what you鈥檒l find unless you look.鈥�

First author of the Nature paper is Xi Wang, a UW postdoctoral researcher in physics and chemistry. Other co-authors are Chengxin Xiao at the University of Hong Kong; UW physics doctoral students Heonjoon Park and Jiayi Zhu; Chong Wang, a UW researcher in materials science and engineering; Takashi Taniguchi and Kenji Watanabe at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan; and Jiaqiang Yan at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy; the U.S. Army Research Office; the U.S. National Science Foundation; the Croucher Foundation; the University Grant Committee/Research Grants Council of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Japan Science and Technology Agency; the state of Washington; and the UW.

For more information, contact Xu at xuxd@uw.edu.

Scientists are excited about diamonds 鈥� not the types that adorn jewelry, but the microscopic variety that are less than the width of a human hair. These so-called “nanodiamonds” are made up almost entirely of carbon. But by introducing other elements into the nanodiamond’s crystal lattice 鈥� a method known as “doping” 鈥� researchers could produce traits useful in medical research, computation and beyond.

In a published May 3 in , researchers at the 天美影视传媒, and announced that they can use extremely high pressure and temperature to dope nanodiamonds. The team used this approach to dope nanodiamonds with silicon, causing the diamonds to glow a deep red 鈥� a property that would make them useful for cell and tissue imaging.

The team discovered that their method could also dope nanodiamonds with , a and nonreactive element related to helium found in balloons. Nanodiamonds doped with such elements could be applied to 鈥� a rapidly expanding field that includes quantum communication and quantum computing.

“Our approach lets us intentionally dope other elements within diamond nanocrystals by carefully selecting the molecular starting materials used during their synthesis,” said corresponding author , a UW associate professor of materials science and engineering and researcher at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

There are other methods to dope nanodiamonds, such as ion implantation, but this process often damages the crystal structure and the introduced elements are placed randomly, which limits performance and applications. Here, the researchers decided not to dope the nanodiamonds after they had been synthesized. Instead, they doped the molecular ingredients to make nanodiamonds with the element they wanted to introduce, then used high temperature and pressure to synthesize nanodiamonds with the included elements.

In principle, it’s like making a cake: It is far simpler and more effective to add sugar to the batter, rather than trying to add sugar to the cake after baking.

The team’s starting point for nanodiamonds was a carbon-rich material 鈥� similar to charcoal, said Pauzauskie 鈥� which the researchers spun into a lightweight, porous matrix known as an . They then doped the carbon aerogel with a silicon-containing molecule called , which was chemically integrated within the carbon aerogel. The researchers sealed the reactants within the gasket of a diamond anvil cell, which could generate pressures as high as 15 gigapascals inside the gasket. For reference, 1 gigapascal is roughly 10,000 atmospheres of pressure, or 10 times the pressure at the deepest part of the ocean.

To prevent the aerogel from being crushed at such extreme pressures, they used argon, which becomes solid at 1.8 gigapascals, as a pressure medium. After loading the material to high pressure, the researchers used a above 3,100 F, more than one-third the surface temperature of the sun. In collaboration with , a UW professor emeritus of chemical engineering, they saw that at these temperatures the solid argon melts to form a supercritical fluid.

Through this process, the carbon aerogel was converted into nanodiamonds containing luminescent point defects formed from the silicon-based dopant molecules. The nanodiamonds emitted a deep-red light at a wavelength of about 740 nanometers, which is useful in medical imaging. Nanodiamonds doped with other elements could emit other colors.

“We can throw a dart at the and 鈥� so long as the element we hit is soluble in diamond 鈥� we could incorporate it deliberately into the nanodiamond using this method,” said Pauzauskie, who is also a researcher with the UW and the . “You could make a wide spectrum of nanodiamonds that emit different colors for imaging purposes. We may also be able to use this molecular doping approach to make more complex point defects with two or more different dopant atoms, including completely new defects that have not been created before.”

Surprisingly, the researchers discovered that their nanodiamonds also contained two other elements that they didn’t intend to introduce 鈥� the argon used as a pressure medium and nitrogen from the air. Just like the silicon that the researchers had intended to introduce, the nitrogen and argon atoms had been fully incorporated into the nanodiamond’s crystal structure.

This marks the first time scientists have used high-temperature, high-pressure assembly to introduce a element 鈥� argon 鈥� into a nanodiamond lattice structure. It is not easy to force nonreactive atoms to associate with other materials in a compound.

“This was serendipitous, a complete surprise,” said Pauzauskie. “But the fact that argon was incorporated into the nanodiamonds means that this method is potentially useful to create other point defects that have potential for use in quantum information science research.”

Researchers hope next to dope nanodiamonds intentionally with , another noble gas, for possible use in fields such as quantum communications and quantum sensing.

Finally, the team’s method also could help solve a cosmic mystery: Nanodiamonds have been found in outer space, and something out there 鈥� such as supernovae or high-energy collisions 鈥� dopes them with noble gases. Though the methods developed by Pauzauskie and his team are for doping nanodiamonds here on Earth, their findings could help scientists learn which types of extraterrestrial events trigger cosmic doping far from home.

Lead author on the paper is , a former doctoral student in Pauzauskie’s laboratory and now a postdoctoral researcher in the UW Department of Chemistry. Co-authors are former UW postdoctoral researcher , now at the University of Napoli Federico II in Italy; doctoral student and professor in the UW Department of Chemistry; former Department of Materials Science & Engineering doctoral students , now a postdoctoral researcher at Sandia National Laboratories, and , now a hardware system reliability engineer at Apple; and , head of the Nanoscale Materials Section at the Naval Research Laboratory. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the 天美影视传媒, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the Microanalysis Society of America and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

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For more information, contact Pauzauskie at peterpz@uw.edu and Crane at +1 206-616-8754 or mjcrane@uw.edu. Pauzauskie is on sabbatical in Europe.

Grant numbers: DMR-1555007, CHE-1565520, CHE-1464497, DMR-171997

The was unveiled during a two-day summit at the UW, an event that included scientists and engineers from the three keystone institutions, as well as potential partners in academia and industry from across the Pacific Northwest.

鈥淭he technological and societal impact of the upcoming quantum revolution is going to be enormous,鈥� said , UW vice provost for research and professor of chemical engineering and microbiology. 鈥淭he UW is thrilled to partner with Microsoft and PNNL in this Northwest Quantum Nexus.鈥�

In alignment with the , the Northwest Quantum Nexus aims to develop a quantum-fluent workforce and economy in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada by accelerating research, technological development, education and training in the quantum information sciences, or QIS. Its objectives include:

• Forming cross-disciplinary research teams working across academia, government and industry toward scalable quantum computing 鈥� including quantum algorithms and programming 鈥� as well as research and development of quantum materials and devices
• Cultivating a workforce that is expert in quantum science, engineering and technology through education and training 鈥� including undergraduate and graduate education, curriculum development; and internships
• Promoting public-private partnerships as platforms to exchange knowledge and resources
• Translating QIS research to testbeds and relevant application areas such as sustainability and clean energy

QIS disciplines include quantum computing, quantum communication, quantum sensing and quantum materials and devices. All of these applications and fields are designed around and enabled by the principles of quantum mechanics, including quantum superposition, which is the property of existing in several different configurations at the same time. 聽For example, quantum computing uses the principles of quantum mechanics and quantum-mechanical processes to carry out computations, which could revolutionize fields from cryptography to molecular simulation. Quantum materials include materials in which new behaviors emerge from quantum interactions.

As QIS technologies progress from research and development to applications in clean energy, sustainability, computing and communications, the Northwest Quantum Nexus seeks to boost the region鈥檚 quantum workforce as well as research and educational capacity, according to coalition members.

鈥淲hile there has been a long history of quantum research and education in the UW physics department, the landscape has changed recently,鈥� said , associate professor of both physics and electrical and computer engineering. 鈥淧eople now see that you can harness the quantum nature of matter to realize new technologies.鈥�

鈥淭his change means a paradigm shift in education,鈥� added Fu, who is also a faculty member in the UW鈥檚 . 鈥淯nderstanding quantum mechanics is no longer an academic question but a required skill for people to develop quantum materials, quantum devices, quantum systems and quantum algorithms.鈥�

These goals also offer opportunities to expand the Northwest Quantum Nexus. Summit attendees included dozens of scientists, engineers and administrators from the keystone partners, as well as potential partners from private companies, startups and universities from across the Pacific Northwest. Three members of Washington鈥檚 congressional delegation also attended the summit: Senator Maria Cantwell, Representative Derek Kilmer and Representative Adam Smith.

The keystone partners have complementary strengths in QIS. For the past 15 years, Microsoft has been a major global driver of quantum computing research and software development. The PNNL鈥檚 research into QIS includes programming, algorithm development, materials synthesis and characterization, as well as applications in quantum chemistry and sensing.

The UW has deep roots in quantum research and discovery. Two UW scientists have earned the Nobel Prize in Physics for QIS research 鈥� Hans Dehmelt in 1989 for developing ion traps and David Thouless in 2016 for theoretical work on topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter. Today, researchers across the UW 鈥� in the , the and the 鈥� are at the forefront of QIS research. The university recently established , which joins QIS research endeavors across the UW in fields such as quantum sensing, quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum materials and devices. Fu and , associate professor and chair of chemical engineering, serve as co-chairs of Quantum X.

The three institutions also work together in QIS research and development. UW and PNNL scientists collaborate on quantum materials research through the . Scientists with Microsoft Quantum are teaching an undergraduate-level course on quantum computing algorithms in the UW鈥檚 Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. Microsoft and the PNNL have collaborated on a chemistry library will inform chemistry research relevant to quantum computing.

The Northwest Quantum Nexus is a natural next step, according to the summit organizers.

鈥淭he Northwest Quantum Nexus summit was an amazing success for UW Quantum X and our keystone partners Microsoft and the PNNL,鈥� said Pfaendtner, who is also a faculty member in the UW鈥檚 .

鈥淲e are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work competing for new private and public research funding, continuing UW鈥檚 long history of developing innovative and agile graduate and undergraduate education programs in the QIS field, and creating amazing new opportunities for our students and postdoctoral researchers.鈥�

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For more information, contact Fu at kaimeifu@uw.edu and Pfaendtner at jpfaendt@uw.edu.

A new collaborative study led by a research team at the Department of Energy’s , University of California, Los Angeles and the 天美影视传媒 could provide engineers new design rules for creating microelectronics, membranes and tissues, and open up better production methods for new materials. At the same time, the research, Dec. 6 in the journal , helps uphold a scientific theory that has remained unproven for over a century.

Just as children follow a rule to line up single file after recess, some materials use an underlying rule to assemble on surfaces one row at a time, according to the study.

Nucleation 鈥� that first formation step 鈥� is pervasive in ordered structures across nature and technology, from cloud droplets to rock candy. Yet despite some predictions made in the 1870s by the American scientist , researchers are still debating how this basic process happens.

The new study verifies Gibbs’ theory for materials that form row by row. Led by UW graduate student Jiajun Chen, working at PNNL, the research uncovers the underlying mechanism, which fills in a fundamental knowledge gap and opens new pathways in materials science.

Chen used small protein fragments called peptides that show specificity, or unique belonging, to a material surface. The UCLA collaborators have been identifying and using such material-specific peptides as control agents to force nanomaterials to grow into certain shapes, such as those desired in catalytic reactions or semiconductor devices. The research team made the discovery while investigating how a particular peptide 鈥� one with a strong binding affinity for molybdenum disulfide 鈥� interacts with the material.

“It was complete serendipity,” said PNNL materials scientist , co-corresponding author of the paper and Chen’s doctoral advisor. “We didn’t expect the peptides to assemble into their own highly ordered structures.”

That may have happened because “this peptide was identified from a molecular evolution process,” adds co-corresponding author , a professor of materials science and engineering at UCLA. “It appears nature does find its way to minimize energy consumption and to work wonders.”

The transformation of liquid water into solid ice requires the creation of a solid-liquid interface. According to Gibbs’ classical nucleation theory, although turning the water into ice saves energy, creating the interface costs energy. The tricky part is the initial start 鈥� that’s when the surface area of the new particle of ice is large compared to its volume, so it costs more energy to make an ice particle than is saved.

Gibbs’ theory predicts that if the materials can grow in one dimension, meaning row by row, no such energy penalty would exist. Then the materials can avoid what scientists call the nucleation barrier and are free to self-assemble.

There has been recent controversy over the theory of nucleation. Some researchers have found evidence that the fundamental process is actually more complex than that proposed in Gibbs’ model.

But “this study shows there are certainly cases where Gibbs’ theory works well,” said De Yoreo, who is also a UW affiliate professor of both chemistry and materials science and engineering.

Previous studies had already shown that some organic molecules, including peptides like the ones in the Science paper, can self-assemble on surfaces. But at PNNL, De Yoreo and his team dug deeper and found a way to understand how molecular interactions with materials impact their nucleation and growth.

They exposed the peptide solution to fresh surfaces of a molybdenum disulfide substrate, measuring the interactions with atomic force microscopy. Then they compared the measurements with molecular dynamics simulations.

De Yoreo and his team determined that even in the earliest stages, the peptides bound to the material one row at a time, barrier-free, just as Gibbs’ theory predicts.

The atomic force microscopy鈥檚 high-imaging speed allowed the researchers to see the rows just as they were forming. The results showed the rows were ordered right from the start and grew at the same speed regardless of their size 鈥� a key piece of evidence. They also formed new rows as soon as enough peptide was in the solution for existing rows to grow; that would only happen if row formation is barrier-free.

This row-by-row process provides clues for the design of 2D materials. Currently, to form certain shapes, designers sometimes need to put systems far out of equilibrium, or balance. That is difficult to control, said De Yoreo.

“But in 1D, the difficulty of getting things to form in an ordered structure goes away,” De Yoreo added. “Then you can operate right near equilibrium and still grow these structures without losing control of the system.”

It could change assembly pathways for those engineering microelectronics or even bodily tissues.

Huang’s team at UCLA has demonstrated new opportunities for devices based on 2D materials assembled through interactions in solution. But she said the current manual processes used to construct such materials have limitations, including scale-up capabilities.

“Now with the new understanding, we can start to exploit the specific interactions between molecules and 2D materials for automatous assembly processes,” said Huang.

The next step, said De Yoreo, is to make artificial molecules that have the same properties as the peptides studied in the new paper 鈥� only more robust.

At PNNL, De Yoreo and his team are looking at stable peptoids, which are as easy to synthesize as peptides but can better handle the temperatures and chemicals used in the processes to construct the desired materials.

Co-authors are Enbo Zhu, Zhaoyang Lin and Xiangfeng Duan at UCLA; Juan Liu and Hendrik Heinz at the University of Colorado, Boulder; and Shuai Zhang at PNNL. Simulations were performed using the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy.

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Grant numbers: EFRI-1433541, 1530790, 1623947, CNS-0821794, DE-AC02-06CH11357

Adapted from a PNNL written by Laura Shields.

The United States Department of Energy has awarded an expected $10.75 million, four-year grant to the 天美影视传媒, the and other partner institutions for a new interdisciplinary research center to define the enigmatic rules that govern how molecular-scale building blocks assemble into ordered structures 鈥� and give rise to complex hierarchical materials.

The Center for the Science of Synthesis Across Scales, or CSSAS, will bring together researchers from biology, engineering and the physical sciences to uncover new insights into how molecular interactions control assembly and apply these principles toward creating new materials with novel and revolutionary properties for applications in energy technology.

“This center seeks to understand the fundamental rules of how order emerges from the interaction of simple building blocks,” said CSSAS Director , the Matthaei Professor and Chair of the UW Department of Chemical Engineering. “What are the energetics, rates and pathways involved, and what properties emerge when simple components come together in increasingly complex layers? Those are some of our driving questions.”

The UW-based CSSAS is among the newest members of the Energy Frontier Research Centers by the Department of Energy. These centers, operated out of universities and national labs, are funded by the Department of Energy and devoted to specific goals in energy science. The work at the CSSAS will focus on understanding the principles of “hierarchical synthesis” 鈥� the process by which molecules come together, bind, interact and create layer upon layer of higher-ordered structures.

CSSAS experiments will focus on protein-based building blocks, but will also probe protein-like synthetic compounds called peptoids as well as inorganic nanoparticles. Studying the biologically inspired assembly of these systems individually and in combination will shed new light on how living organisms, through billions of years of adaptation and evolution, have created complex hierarchical systems to solve a host of challenges, said Baneyx.

Understanding hierarchical synthesis would allow engineers to design and build new materials with unique properties for innovative technological advancements that can come about only when scientists exert precise control over a material. For example, controlling how charges move precisely through a material 鈥� or how a substrate is shuttled between the active sites of a series of enzymes positioned with nanoscale precision 鈥� could be key to creating new materials for energy storage, transmission and generation. The precision control that scientists envision could also yield functional materials that are self-healing or self-repairing, and have other custom physical properties designed within them.

“Scientists have been trying to create these types of innovative materials largely through ‘top-down’ approaches, and often by reverse engineering an interesting biological material,” said Baneyx. “We will begin with the blocks themselves, exploring how order evolves in the synthesis process when the blocks are put together and interact.”

CSSAS research will focus on three major areas:

• Investigating the emergence of order from the interactions of individual building blocks, be they peptoids, inorganic nanoparticles or protein-based particles
• Probing how hierarchy unfolds as these building blocks are combined to construct lattices, active structures and hybrid materials
• Using machine learning, computational simulations and big data analytics to learn new ways to control the assembly dynamics of hierarchical structures

These investigations will build upon work conducted at the UW , led by UW biochemistry professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator , and harness the expertise of researchers at the University of Chicago, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of California, San Diego.

The CSSAS effort was enabled by , or NW IMPACT, which was formally launched earlier this year by UW President Ana Mari Cauce and PNNL Director Steven Ashby to fertilize cross-disciplinary collaborations between UW and PNNL researchers. NW IMPACT co-director , who is the PNNL chief scientist for materials synthesis and simulation across scales and also holds a joint appointment at the UW in both chemistry and materials science and engineering, will serve as the deputy director of the CSSAS.

“This center’s focus is ultimately on unlocking potential,” said Baneyx. “Once we understand the fundamental rules governing the assembly of bioinspired building blocks, we will be able to design new materials to meet a broad range of technological needs.”

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For more information, contact Baneyx at 206-685-7659 or baneyx@uw.edu and De Yoreo at 509-375-6494 or james.deyoreo@pnnl.gov.

Many innovations of 21st century life, from touch screens and electric cars to fiber-optics and implantable devices, grew out of research on new materials. This impact of materials science on today’s world has prompted two of the leading research institutions in the Pacific Northwest to join forces to research and develop new materials that will significantly influence tomorrow’s world.

With this eye toward the future, the Department of Energy’s and the announced the creation of the 鈥� or NW IMPACT 鈥� a joint research endeavor to power discoveries and advancements in materials that transform energy, telecommunications, medicine, information technology and other fields. UW President and PNNL Director formally launched NW IMPACT during a ceremony Jan. 31 at the PNNL campus in Richland, Washington.

“This partnership holds enormous potential for innovations in materials science that could lead to major changes in our lives and the world,” said Cauce. “We are excited to strengthen the ties between our two organizations, which bring complementary strengths and a shared passion for ground-breaking discovery.”

“The science of making new materials is vital to a wide range of advancements, many of which we have yet to imagine,” said Ashby. “By combining ideas, talent and resources, I have no doubt our two organizations will find new ways to improve lives and provide our next generation of materials scientists with valuable research opportunities.”

The institute builds on a history of successful partnerships between the UW and PNNL, including joint faculty appointments and past collaborations such as the , the PNNL-led and a new UW-based . But NW IMPACT is the beginning of a long-term partnership, forging deeper ties between the UW and PNNL.

The goal is to leverage these respective strengths to enable discoveries, innovations and educational opportunities that would not have been possible by either institution alone.

“By partnering the UW and PNNL together through NW IMPACT, the sum will truly be greater than the parts,” said David Ginger, a UW professor of chemistry and chief scientist at the UW . 聽“We are joining together our expertise and experiences to create the next generation of leaders who will create the materials of the future.”

Ginger will co-lead the institution in its initial phase with Jim De Yoreo, chief scientist for materials synthesis and simulation across scales at PNNL and a joint appointee at the UW.

Over its first few years, NW IMPACT aims to hire a permanent institute director, who will be based at both PNNL and the UW; create at least 20 new joint UW-PNNL appointments among existing researchers; streamline access to research facilities at the UW’s Seattle campus and PNNL’s Richland campus for institute projects; involve at least 20 new UW graduate students in PNNL-UW collaborations; and provide seed grants to institute-affiliated researchers to tackle new scientific frontiers in a collaborative fashion.

Some of the areas in which NW IMPACT will initially focus include:

• Materials for energy conversion and storage, which can be applied to more efficient solar cells, batteries and industrial applications. These include innovative approaches to create flexible, ultrathin solar cells for buildings or fabrics, long-lasting batteries for implantable medical devices, catalysts to enable high efficiency energy conversion and industrial processes, and manufacturing methods to synthesize these materials efficiently for commercial applications.
• Quantum materials, such as ultrathin semiconductors or other materials that can harness the rules of quantum mechanics at subatomic-level precision for applications in quantum computing, telecommunications and beyond.
• Materials for water separation and utilization, which include processes to make water purification and ocean desalination methods faster, cheaper and more energy-efficient.
• Biomimetic materials, which are synthetic materials inspired by the structures and design principles of biological molecules and materials within our cells 鈥� including proteins and DNA. These materials could be applicable in medical settings for implantable devices or tissue engineering, and for self-assembled protein-like scaffolds in industrial settings.

“The science of making materials involves understanding where the atoms must be placed in order to obtain the properties needed for specific applications, and then understanding how to get the atoms where they need to be,” said De Yoreo.

NW IMPACT will draw on the unique strengths and talents of each institution for innovative collaborations in these areas. For example, PNNL has broad expertise in materials for improved batteries. The lab also offers best-in-class imaging, NMR and mass spectrometry capabilities at , a DOE Office of Science user facility. DOE supports fundamental research at PNNL in chemistry, physics and materials sciences that are key to materials development. The UW brings complementary facilities and equipment to the partnership, such as the and a cryo-electron microscopy facility, as well as expertise in a variety of “big data” research and training endeavors, highly rated research and education programs, and ongoing materials research projects through the National Science Foundation-funded .

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For more information, contact James Urton with the UW News Office at 206-543-2580 or jurton@uw.edu and Susan Bauer with the PNNL News & Media Relations Office at 509-372-6083 or susan.bauer@pnnl.gov.

“Because crystallization is a ubiquitous phenomenon across a wide range of scientific disciplines, a shift in the picture of how this process occurs has far-reaching consequences,” said , a materials scientist and physicist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and affiliate UW and .

These conclusions, with De Yoreo as lead author, have implications for decades-old questions in crystal formation, such as how animals and plants form minerals into shapes that have no relation to their original crystal symmetry or why some contaminants are so difficult to remove from stream sediments and groundwater.

Their findings crystalized during discussions among 15 scientists from diverse fields such as geochemistry, physics, biology and the earth and materials sciences. At their home institutions, these researchers conduct experiments, investigate animal skeletons, study soils and streams or use computer simulations to visualize how particles can form and attach. They met for a three-day workshop in Berkeley, California, that was sponsored by the Council on Geosciences from the Department of Energy’s .

“Researchers across all disciplines have made observations of skeletons and laboratory-grown crystals that cannot be explained by traditional theories,” said senior author , a professor of geosciences at Virginia Tech. “We show how these crystals can be built up into complex structures by attaching particles 鈥� as nanocrystals, clusters, or droplets 鈥� that become organized into complex shapes. Many scientists have contributed to identifying these particles and pathways to becoming a crystal 鈥� our challenge was to put together a framework to understand them.”

In animal and laboratory systems alike, the crystal formation process begins by constructing their constituent particles. These can be small molecules, clusters, droplets or nanocrystals. These particles are unstable and begin to combine with each other, nearby crystals and other surfaces. For example, nanocrystals prefer to orient themselves along the same direction as a larger crystal before attaching, much like adding Legos. In contrast, amorphous conglomerates can simply aggregate. Their atoms later become organized by “doing the wave” through the mass to rearrange into a single crystal.

“Because we largely show a community consensus on this topic, the study has the potential to define the directions of future research on crystallization,” said De Yoreo.

The authors say much work remains to understand the forces that cause these particles to move and combine. It is one of the driving forces behind new research.

“Particle pathways are tricky because they can form what appear to be crystals with the traditional faceted surfaces or they can have completely unexpected shapes and chemical compositions,” said Dove. “Our group synthesized the evidence to show these pathways to growing a crystal become possible because of interplays between of thermodynamic and kinetic factors.”

The implications of these discussions span diverse scientific fields. By understanding how animals form crystals into working structures such as shells, teeth and bones, scientists will have a bigger and better toolbox to interpret crystals formed in nature. These insights may also help design novel materials and explain unusual mineral patterns in rocks. In addition, knowledge of how pollutants are transported or trapped in the minerals of sediments has implications for environmental management of water and soil.

“How we think about the ways to crystallization impacts how we interpret natural crystallization processes in geochemical and biological environments, as well as how we design and control synthetic crystal growth processes,” said De Yoreo. “I was surprised at how widespread a phenomenon particle-mediated crystallization is and how easily one can create a unified picture that captures its many styles.”

The work was supported by the Council on Geosciences of the U.S. Department of Energy’s office of Science. All co-authors and their affiliations .

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For more information, contact De Yoreo at James.DeYoreo@pnnl.gov.

Adapted from PNNL press release: ““