Welcome to the Center for Defect Physics in Structural Materials

	—Click on picture to enlarge image—
	Schematic of the key elements of the CDP, highlighting the links between the three research thrusts and the use of major Department of Energy user facilities to study defects and the unit events that ultimately control materials response to extremes of stress and irradiation.

The Center for Defect Physics in Structural Materials (CDP), an Energy Frontier Research Center, focuses on providing the fundamental knowledge to allow atomistic control and manipulation of defects, defect interactions, and defect dynamics—the very defect properties that currently limit the performance and lifetime of materials. Underpinning the CDP is the realization that we are on the verge of a new era of quantitative measurement and direct quantum simulation of the dramatic impact of defects on bulk structural materials. The new era can be realized by utilizing innovative experimental techniques and major national facilities, such as the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), and by advancing the frontiers of first-principles simulations using the petaflops computing power soon to be available at the National Center for Computational Science (NCCS) and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC).

The overarching goal of the CDP is to bring a radically new level of rigor and insight to the discussion of defect structure, interactions, and dynamics in metals and alloys: rigor born of quantitative experimental studies of defect evolution at the level of unit defect events and insight born of highly accurate calculations and simulations of properties that are based on a full quantum description of the underlying electronic interactions—calculations and simulations that will confront experimental measurements directly and at the level of unit events. The center focuses on three interrelated research thrust (RT) areas:

• RT1: Fundamental Physics of Defect Formation and Evolution during Irradiation

• RT2: Fundamental Physics of Defect Interactions during Deformation

• RT3: Quantum Theory of Defects and Interactions

Contact:

G. Malcolm Stocks, Corporate Fellow
Director of the Center for Defect Physics
Materials Theory Group, Group Leader
Materials Science and Technology Division
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Post Office Box 2008
e-mail: stocksgm@ornl.gov
tel: 865-574-5163
fax: 865-576-7659
web site: (http://www.ms.ornl.gov/cdp/index.shtml)

Ann R. Strange, Secretary
e-mail: strangear@ornl.gov
tel: 865-576-7054