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On April 18, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility welcomed Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Geraldine (Geri) Richmond for a tour of the lab and briefing on its research mission, innovation and STEM programs.

Accelerator scientists at Jefferson Lab have used an enhanced topographic analysis toolkit they developed to show that it not only successfully predicts particle accelerator component performance, but also points toward even better surface treatments not yet tested on a large scale. The results were recently published in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams.

Jefferson Lab accelerator physicists are partnering with Fermilab, Florida International University, General Atomics and others to further develop compact, high-power, and energy-efficient SRF accelerators for work in industrial settings. The work has been funded with $7.5 million from the DOE’s Accelerate initiative, which hopes to hasten the translation of new technologies into industrial applications.

From televisions to X-ray machines, many modern technologies are enabled by electrons that have been juiced up by a particle accelerator. Now, Jefferson Lab has teamed up with General Atomics and other partners to unlock even more applications. The team has designed, built and successfully tested a prototype of a key component of particle accelerators that could enable novel industrial applications of accelerators.

Nuclear physicists with Jefferson Lab have shattered a nearly 30-year-old record for precision in electron beam polarimetry. The groundbreaking result sets the stage for high-profile experiments that could open the door to new physics discoveries.