|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Wendy Mao will soon join XLAM as Assistant Professor, appointed jointly between SLAC’s Photon Science Department and the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences in Stanford University’s School of Earth Sciences. She will start in Summer 2007.
Wendy's research focuses on multi-disciplinary high-pressure materials research using a variety of synchrotron x-ray probes.
She conducted the first ultrahigh pressure x-ray Raman study of graphite and found it converted to a superhard phase. She discovered a novel hydrogen clathrate at moderate pressure and low temperature with implications for hydrogen storage applications.
Last year, she observed the high-pressure x-ray induced conversion of ice to a new molecular compound of H2 and O2, and using nuclear resonant inelastic scattering of 57Fe, she addressed the long-standing mystery of ultralow velocity zones at the lowermost mantle of Earth’s interior.
Michael McGehee, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at Stanford University, has been named the 2007 Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator. He is cited for "innovation and application of organic semiconductor in lasers, light-emitting diodes, transistors, and solar cells." He will deliver an award talk at the 2007 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting to be held April 9-13 in San Francisco.
As a research unit, XLAM (X-Ray Laboratory for Advanced Materials) is a center of excellence within the Photon Science Directorate at SLAC and it addresses key challenges associated with DOE's mission in the areas of condensed matter physics and materials science. It will provide scientific leadership in utilizing and developing the photon science related devices/detectors and other SLAC facilities. XLAM will also provide theoretical leadership and support for photon/materials-based experiments at SLAC. The emphasis of this core group is in the general area of scattering, spectroscopy and imaging using the two major national user facilities - the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) and the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS).
The SLAC-based core capabilities include x-ray scattering, x-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy, angle-resolved photoemission, time-resolved scattering and spectroscopy, and spectro-microscopy. Up to now, the emphasis has been the unique photon source at SLAC and its related spectroscopy and scattering expertise. There will also be a strong computational component of this core to support the interpretation of experimental data. As these experimental techniques and materials to be studied become more complex, calculation, simulation, and data visualization become increasingly important. The SLAC photon based experimental techniques have been applied to strongly correlated materials, magnetic materials, low-dimensional materials, molecular solids, materials made of nano-clusters, surfaces and interfaces, as well as catalysis. XLAM programs will extend this effort to include matters under extreme conditions, such as high magnetic field and high pressure.
In addition to being a unit in SLAC's Photon Science Directorate, XLAM serves as a link between SLAC and the intellectual resources in other Stanford schools, most specifically, the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials (GLAM), a campus based independent laboratory. XLAM serves to closely couple SLAC and the Stanford campus by encouraging and engaging the larger Stanford community to participate in DOE's basic energy science research enterprise. XLAM programs co-located with GLAM in the McCullough Building include Materials Synthesis; Local Probe Microscopy; Condensed Matter Theory; and Organic/Inorganic Interfaces.