Up Close: Center for Advanced Materials at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
- PDF / 289,639 Bytes
- 1 Pages / 604.8 x 806.4 pts Page_size
- 21 Downloads / 196 Views
The boundaries between the present performance of materials and the requirements of device designers have for centuries been moving forward. The steps taken to draw these two together are sometimes large; more often they are small. As they occur, we find materials that are stronger, have larger magnetic moments, have higher electron mobilities, etc. Each time the property profile improves, understanding of the physical and chemical properties advances, and new engineering devices based on the improved profile are invented and developed. The purpose of the Center for Advanced Materials (CAM) at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) is to enhance the interplay between advances in the property profiles of materials and advances in the chemical and physical understanding of them. For this purpose, the location of CAM can be described as ideal. The proximity of this national laboratory to the campus of the University of California at Berkeley provides an unusually rich intellectual setting for the Center. It also provides unique opportunities for the University students and faculty who conduct materials-related research. Indeed, the arrangement should be a model for similar organizations, and it represents a solid method forstrengthening materials science and technology throughout the nation. National policy in critical materials has given the national laboratories—including LBL—strong direction and incentive to collaborate with industry and the research universities. This incentive led to the establishment of CAM in order to build on the symbiosis between LBL and the Univ e r s i t y of California at Berkeley. It strives to ex tend this symbiosis by bringing industry into the ongoing educational process and by making its special facilities m o r e readily available to i n d u s t r i a l researchers. Materials advances result from new compositions, new processes, and new architectures for materials in devices. All these areas have reached high levels of sophistication, and they are moving higher still. Large,complex toolsforsynthesisand analysis have, therefore, become necessary. For example, one materials research trend has been toward the control of structure at very small scales. This control can be achieved only by means of complex ma-
chines for making the materials and analyzing the products. The infrastructure of a large laboratory facility is highly advantageous for such operations; in some cases it is a necessity. Within LBL, CAM is availed of special equipment such as powerful electron microscopes and particle accelerators, an infrastructure that includes highlydevelopedcomputerand information systems, personnel with a broad variety of technical skills, and an exceptionally wellqualified cadre of graduate students and faculty. CAM consists of six groups: (1) Surface Science and Catalysis—with emphasis on the synthesis and characterization of microporous solids (carbides and zeolites), surface compounds (that exist at bimetallic and metal-oxide interfaces) and organometallic compounds; (2) Light Alloys—as re
Data Loading...
