Basic Energy Sciences (BES) at LLNL

BES Program Mission

The BES program at LLNL supports fundamental investigations in the fields of materials science, chemical sciences, and biomaterials.

The BES-supported research portfolio at LLNL includes research efforts in the areas of ultrafast materials science, radiation-resistant materials for advanced energy applications, mesoscale materials for catalysis, and nanoscale biomaterials science. BES also supports LLNL research such as synchrotron radiation and neutron sources at national scientific user facilities.

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LLNL BES Programs

Fundamental Mechanisms of Transient States in Materials Quantified by DTEM

Investigating the fundamental physical mechanisms controlling transformation kinetics at the nanoscale, concentrating on the crystallization of amorphous solids.

Directed Organization of Functional Materials at Inorganic-Macromolecular Interfaces

Creating a quantitative physical picture of macromolecular organization and its relationship to function, and using macromolecular organization to derive new functionality.

Discontinuous Methods for Accurate, Massively Parallel Quantum Molecular Dynamics

Developing and applying a recent breakthrough, the Discontinuous Galerkin electronic structure method, to pave the way for a corresponding breakthrough in battery performance, lifetime, and safety.

Center for Predictive Simulation of Functional Materials

Developing, applying, validating, and disseminating parameter-free methods and open source codes to predict and explain the properties of functional materials for energy applications.

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Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs)

Center for Non-Perturbative Studies of Functional Materials under Non-Equilibrium Conditions

Researchers from LLNL, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are using an experiment–theory approach to develop open-source software that will facilitate fundamental advances in materials science.

Integrated Mesoscale Architectures for Sustainable Catalysis (IMASC)

IMASC research specifically addresses the grand challenge of how to design and perfect atom- and energy-efficient synthesis of revolutionary new forms of matter with tailored properties.

Energy Dissipation to Defect Evolution (EDDE)

The EDDE EFRC aims to develop a fundamental understanding of how the energy of radiation is dissipated, and ultimately to control defect dynamics and microstructural evolution in structural alloys.

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BES Highlights

Coherency Does Not Equate to Stability

Topological features of nano-twinned microstructures that influence their thermal stability and mechanical behavior.

Laser Crystallization of Semiconductor Materials

The growth speed of crystalline germanium telluride (GeTe) into amorphous GeTe at high temperatures was precisely measured by imaging the growth front with movie-mode dynamic transmission electron microscopy (DTEM).

Mesoscale Simulations of Coarsening in GB Networks

A phase-field model with the kinematics of crystallographic correlations fully encoded for complex multiply-twinned grain boundary networks.

Extraction of Equilibrium Energy and Kinetic Parameters from Single-Molecule Force Spectroscopy Data

The first-ever demonstration that equilibrium-free energy can be determined by single-molecule force spectroscopy.