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June
2001
The
Laboratory
in the News
Commentary
by
Lee Younker
Turning
Carbon
Directly into
Electricity
Environmental
Research in State
and Beyond
This
Nitrogen
Molecule Really
Packs Heat
PEREGRINE
Goes to Work
Patents
Awards
|
The Laboratory
in the News
|
Coating
protects, improves telescopes
Livermore scientists Jesse
Wolfe and Norman Thomas have patented an ultrathin silver coating
for mirrors that is far more durable than any previously used. It
improves the long-term performance of telescopes and lasers by slowing
the deterioration of the mirror coatings vital to these instruments.
Wolfe, Thomas, and their
support team recently coated on
a 56-centimeter-diameter mirror at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.
Within the next few months, the mirror coating is also scheduled
for installation on several of the worlds major telescopes,
including Kitt Peak in Tucson, Arizona, and possibly the South African
Large Telescope and the California Extremely Large Telescope.
Thomas explains, These
large telescopes typically involve five or six reflections from
coated mirrors, which affect the collection efficiency. Our coating
will give each mirror a consistent 97-percent reflectivity. Previous
coatings provided about 90-percent reflectivity. Combine the effect
from several mirrors, and we may have up to 35-percent increased
collection efficiency for many years from each of these large telescopes.
The improved coating is also
being installed to protect the thousands of mirrors to be used in
the National Ignition Facilitys (NIF) flashlamps, according
to Wolfe. Research on the more durable coating was initiated for
the NIF project.
In June, mirrors with the
new silver coating will travel to the International Space Station
for long-term testing in the rigorous conditions of outer space.
Contact: Norman Thomas (925) 422-0486 (thomas19@llnl.gov).
Teller
Education Center founded for K12 teachers
The University of California
at Davis, in collaboration with the UC Office of the President,
UC Merced, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has established
the Edward Teller Education Center adjacent to the UC Davis Department
of Applied Science at Livermore.
Funded by the Office of the
President and the Laboratory, the center will provide opportunities
for the professional development of kindergarten-through-twelvth-grade
(K12) teachers working in participating school districts within
the Tri-Valley area surrounding the Laboratory and the San Joaquin
and Sacramento valleys in central California. In addition, local
community colleges and school districts, state universities,
and industry will support and participate in center activities.
The center will provide learning opportunities to support professional
development throughout a teachers career. It may also offer
advanced-placement science classes for students who otherwise would
not have access to them.
The new 338-square-meter
building includes a wet laboratory classroom, a computer technology
classroom, high-speed computer network connections, and overhead
projection systems to demonstrate the latest teaching tools and
instruction methods. The facility is scheduled to open September
1, 2001.
The center is named for Edward
Teller, co-founder of Lawrence Livermore, the founding chair of
the Department of Applied Science at UC Davis, and a life-long promoter
of excellence in science education.
The center is a fantastic
resource to help teachers from various disciplines develop their
teaching skills and acquire content knowledge, says Richard
Farnsworth, interim director of the center and manager of K12
education and outreach for Livermores Science and Technology
Education Program.
Contact: Richard Farnsworth (925) 422-5059 (farnsworth1@llnl.gov).
Prototype EUVL
chip-making machine unveiled
In early April at Sandia
National Laboratories in Livermore, California, industry and government
officials celebrated the completion of the first full-scale prototype
machine for making computer chips using extreme ultraviolet lithography.
EUVL technology is a breakthrough that will lead to microprocessors
that are tens of times faster than todays most powerful chips
and create memory chips with similar increases in storage capacity.
The completion of the
prototype machine marks a major milestone for the program, since
we have proven that EUV lithography works, says Chuck Gwyn,
program manager of the Extreme Ultraviolet Limited Liability Company
(EUV LLC), the consortium of Intel, Motorola, Advanced Micro Devices,
Micron Technology, Infineon, and IBM.
Through an agreement that
spans 1997 through early 2002, EUV LLC is funding the EUVL development
research by the Virtual National Laboratory (VNL), a collaboration
of three Department of Energy national laboratoriesLawrence
Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley, and Sandia. The VNLEUV LLC collaboration
produced the prototype EUVL machine, called the Engineering Test
Stand.
At the April celebration,
John Gordon, administrator of the DOEs National Nuclear Security
Administration, asserted, The EUVL partnership demonstrates
that fundamental science and innovative ideas can be applied toward
solutions in both the commercial and public sectors. These kinds
of challenges are exactly the kind of work our national laboratories
does best.
Contact: Gordon Yano (925) 423-3117 (yano1@llnl.gov).
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July 23, 2001
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