Discovery at Light Speed. Photon Sciences Directorate at Brookhaven National Laboratory 2010 Annual Report

摘要

This is a very exciting period for photon sciences at Brookhaven National Laboratory. It is also a time of unprecedented growth for the Photon Sciences Directorate, which operates the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and is constructing NSLS-II, both funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Science. Reflecting the quick pace of our activities, we chose the theme Discovery at Light Speed for the directorates 2010 annual report, a fiscal year bookended by October 2009 and September 2010. Our NSLS users come from a worldwide community of scientists using photons, or light, to carry out research in energy and environmental sciences, physics, materials science, chemistry, biology and medicine. All are looking forward to the new capabilities enabled by NSLS-II, which will offer unprecedented resolution at the nanoscale. The new facility will produce x-rays more than 10,000 times brighter than the current NSLS and host a suite of sophisticated instruments for cutting-edge science. Some of the scientific discoveries we anticipate at NSLS-II will lead to major advances in alternative energy technologies, such as hydrogen and solar. These discoveries could pave the way to: catalysts that split water with sunlight for hydrogen production; materials that can reversibly store large quantities of electricity or hydrogen; high-temperature superconducting materials that carry electricity with no loss for efficient power transmission lines; and materials for solid-state lighting with half of the present power consumption.