Research
The laboratory views phase diagrams as maps of chemical potential landscapes. Just as geographic cartographers mapped coastlines, rivers, hazards, and routes to enable navigation of the physical world, our team of experimental phase diagram cartographers map high-value phase boundaries, stability fields, reactions, and processing windows to enable navigation of composition space.
We experimentally constrain stability fields and phase relationships in composition spaces where configurational complexity and entropic contributions challenge predictive approaches.
Representative techniques: Drop calorimetrey, Containerless Levitation Melting, SEM.
High temperature modeling is hindered by anharmonic effects and limited thermodynamic data. We map borides, carbides, refractory metals, and related systems directly at the temperatures where they must function in new aerospace systems.
Representative techniques: 3D Compostional Tomography, SEM, XRD/PDF.
We produce experimentally derived phase stability maps and structural models for actinide-containing systems with limited datasets and complex 5f electron behavior so next-gen nuclear fuels and propulsion systems can be implemented safely.
Representative techniques: High Temp Containerless Levitation, High Energy XRD, Total Scattering.
We utilize Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Lawrence Livermore National Lab. We also are active users of the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab.