Sandia's Materials Science Research Foundation works
to understand materials across the atomic- to microscale continuum, design and
process materials with required properties, and develop novel
characterization techniques to further understanding and predictability. Visit our materials science and engineering website for more information.
Why our work matters
The nation depends on breakthrough materials science to meet
critical future-security imperatives. New materials will be vital to providing
new capabilities, meeting new systems requirements, and replacing obsolete or
unavailable technologies. Materials processing provides the knowledge base to
control the fabrication of critical materials. As systems change and age,
the materials science discipline delivers answers regarding the chemical and physical
mechanisms that underlie those changes.
Our unique value
- Deep foundational knowledge in electronic and optical materials, thin films and coatings,
nanostructured materials, ceramics synthesis and processing, and catalysis and
reaction processes
- Proven expertise in developing and applying innovative characterization and diagnostic techniques, as well as advanced computational methods
- Collaboration across Sandia's science and engineering communities provides entrée into numerous corporate strengths such as high-performance computing, microsystems, chemical imaging, and modeling and simulation
- World-class equipment and facilities:
Our approach
Materials structure and behavior
Goal
Quantify the relationships between
materials' composition, structure, and morphology.
Strategies
- Explore,
characterize, and understand the structure, composition, behavior, and functional
properties of existing materials across atomic- to macroscopic-length scales
- Quantify fundamentals
such as reaction energetics, energy transfer mechanisms, and material movement
in order to predict future properties such as composition, degradation, diffusion,
dissolution, and transport in a wide variety of timescales
and environmental conditions
New materials development
Goal
Explore,
develop, and provide new materials with dramatically enhanced properties,
functions, and behaviors to meet future requirements in critical
systems.
Strategies
- Build on our legacy
of pioneering semiconductor science to develop next-generation semiconductor
and beyond-semiconductor materials as the basis for novel electronic and
optoelectronic devices
- Develop and exploit
computational methods to obtain a deeper understanding of the physical
principles and paradigms that govern growth, synthesis, and processing
Novel characterization and diagnostic tools and techniques
Goal
Invent and apply new
diagnostic tools and techniques to determine materials structure, properties,
and response relevant to lifecycle performance analysis.
Strategy
- Discover new
understanding about how materials behave under the full range of relevant
conditions
