Active Projects - FY 2025
New LDRD Projects
Lead Scientist: John Baniecki
This effort leverages expertise in AI-guided autonomous atomic-layer synthesis and experimentation, microelectronic materials and devices, and high-throughput (HiTp) screening of materials via X-ray scattering to achieve project goals: develop AI-guided autonomous HiTp X-ray experimentation capabilities for combinatorial thin film libraries; apply these approaches to discover new insight into alloys that enhance the functionality and energy efficiency of back-end-of-line microelectronic technologies; explore local phase identification methodology for alloy combinatorial libraries to drive autonomous process exploration.
Lead Scientist: David Cesar
This project will explore the use of micro-fabricated probes as a platform for cheap, flexible, high-performance field characterization, using photoconductive sampling to map beam fields with unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution. Efforts to design, build, and test prototype devices on the soft X-ray beamline at LCLS are intended to demonstrate the utility of photoconductive sampling as an ultrafast beam diagnostic.
Lead Scientist: Peter Dahlberg
This project seeks to develop sample preparation and imaging protocols in the context of three high-priority materials science research areas (electrochemical energy storage, water filtration, chemical upcycling of polymers), which include cryogenic sample preservation, manipulation and sectioning, electron microscopy imaging, and electron spectroscopy. Efforts here will result in the physical infrastructure necessary to carry a diverse array of materials samples from cryogenic preservation through advanced cryogenic electron microscopy imaging and spectroscopy methods.
Lead Scientist: Luke Fletcher
This project aims to develop a novel single X-ray pulse reconstruction methodology known as stochastic correlation X-ray spectroscopy (SCXS). The core concept consists of using the correlation between the spectral distributions of the individual incident, non-monochromatized Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) pulses and each corresponding scattered signals from a laser-heated and/or X-ray-heated plasmas. Such a development will be used for accurate measurement of complex phenomenon, e.g., electron-ion equilibration dynamics, thermal diffusivity, ionization populations, and electronic-ionic transport properties from dense plasmas at femtosecond scales.
Lead Scientist: Sean Gasiorowski
This project seeks to expand existing intelligent sequential experimental design methodology by extending the class of probabilistic models available for sequential experimental design, including state-of the-art neural network approaches such as transformers and graph neural networks, and using this new methodology to scale experimental design to high-dimensional inputs, large-sample size, and complex geometries. These methods will be development in the context of Bayesian Algorithm Execution, an acquisition strategy well-suited to a range of SLAC science tasks which cannot be solved by traditional Bayesian optimization.
Lead Scientist: Spencer Gessner
The objective of this project is to prepare a detailed design and costing of a compact positron source with radio frequency (RF) accelerator for delivering low-emittance positron beams for experiments at SLAC. Critical challenges that the compact positron source must overcome will be studied, including the preservation of positron bunch emittance during pulse compression and acceleration and methods to increase the positron rate significantly. Experimental concepts for positronplasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) science, laboratory astrophysics, ultrafast surface science, and medical diagnostics will be designed.
Lead Scientist: Slava Leshchenko
The goal of the project is to demonstrate a few times increase of the conversion efficiency compared to presently available solutions, serving as a solid proof of the overall feasibility of the multi-pass nonlinear optical conversion approach. The available simulation software will be extended to nonlinear interaction in MPCs and used to develop an optical design optimized for nonlinear conversion in MPCs. An experimental demonstration of high-efficiency generation of femtosecond long-wave infrared pulses will be performed.
Lead Scientist: Mianzhen Mo
This project aims to validate interatomic potentials for fundamental modeling of materials developed for nuclear fusion applications. Experimental data from a new class of pump-probe experiments, capable of characterizing materials’ behavior with atomic-scale temporal and spatial resolutions, will be utilized for testing large-scale Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and validating interatomic potential models that are crucial for accurately predicting atomistic dynamics. Verified potential models will be added to the database to inform the design of fusion materials and to enhance the prediction accuracy of materials behavior under extreme fusion environments.
Lead Scientist: Frédéric Poitevin
This project seeks to develop a robust experimental and theoretical framework for simulating, conducting, and analyzing terahertz (THz)-pump X-ray diffraction experiments on protein crystals. Efforts here will show the utility of THz-pump X-ray diffraction probe techniques in the determination of protein motions that are critical for enzyme catalysis and expand the scope of pump-probe crystallographic experiments to a much broader array of bioscience cases at SSRL and LCLS.
Lead Scientist: Molleigh Preefer
The primary objectives of this research effort are defining the chemical and structural features that govern the performance for battery cycling rate (diffusivity) and capacity (ion storage) and discovering new chemistries within the crystallographic shear and bronze phases that optimize these properties. Secondarily, development of operando resonant diffraction to advance multimodal characterization at SSRL will be pursued. The final objective is to establish methodology to incorporate other materials systems to compare structure-property-function relationships across materials families, such as layered materials, high entropy alloys, and disordered rock salt materials.
Lead Scientist: Jocelyn Richardson
This project aims to develop a suite of standardized, modular simulated soil platforms enabling systematic evaluation of interdependent and correlated soil components that impact nutrient uptake, transport, and chemical transformations by the plant rhizosphere. These platforms will allow for the independent assessment of the impact of soil porosity, mineral composition, microbial interactions, and environmental stressors on plant growth. The modular platforms will be developed using advanced additive manufacturing methods and samples applicable to a broad range of food crops and grasses.
Lead Scientist: Aaron Roodman
This project will develop and demonstrate workable optical designs for a multi-object fiber system on the very fast “f/1.2” Rubin Observatory optical beam, exploring possible use of the Rubin Observatory following the Legacy Survey of Space & Time’s (LSST) 10-year imaging campaign. Four specific outcomes will be sought: optical fiber throughput determination; conceptual design of an atmospheric dispersion corrector; evaluation of the re-purposing of the Rubin camera system; exploration and evaluation of advanced optical concepts for dispersed observations.
Lead Scientist: Emmanuel Schaan
The project aims to establish the theory and analysis infrastructure enabling joint analyses of Cosmic Microwave Background experiment (CMB) data and Large-Scale Structure (LSS) data at SLAC. This work will address the existing hurdles in the joint analysis of kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) data and galaxy lensing. This work will also lay the foundation to incorporate galaxy-halo connection systematic effects which are currently lacking in existing analyses. New software will be developed from preexisting software to perform this join analysis at the SLAC Shared Science Data Facility (S3DF) with precursor data.
Lead Scientist: Dimosthenis Sokaras
This proposal seeks to streamline and implement a novel modulation excitation hard X-ray spectroscopy technique at SSRL to uncover interfacial electrochemistry and kinetics, focusing on CO2 reduction as a primary study. The effort will involve two main tasks: developing versatile instrumentation for modulation excitation X-ray absorption spectroscopy across various SSRL beamlines, and, tracing the kinetics of transient interfacial species to derive structure-activity relationships that influence the selectivity driven by the atomic design of copper catalytic interfaces and their microenvironments.
