MaRIE: An Experimental Facility Concept for Revolutionizing Materials in Extreme Environments

MaRIE, for Matter-Radiation Interactions in Extremes, is Los Alamos
National Laboratory’s facility concept for addressing decadal challenges
in materials, especially in extreme environments, through a focus on
predicting and controlling materials microstructure. MaRIE will be an
international user facility and will enable unprecedented in-situ,
transient measurements of “real” mesoscale materials in relevant
extremes, especially dynamic loading and irradiation extremes.
Concurrent advances in multi-scale modeling and computational resources
hold great promise for rapid progress toward these goals. To achieve
this vision, MaRIE will construct a high-energy, low-average-intensity
source of x-ray photons (pre-conceptually, a 50 keV XFEL) and couple it
to an existing high intensity proton linear accelerator (800 MeV at 1
MW) through three measurement halls: the Multi-Probe Diagnostic Hall
(MPDH), the Fission-Fusion Materials Facility (F3), and the Making,
Measuring and Modeling Materials Facility (M4). In this presentation we
will discuss both the science questions that motivate such a facility
and our vision for realizing it.