What is the Zebra Pulsed Power Lab?

The Zebra Pulsed Power Lab (ZPPL) was established by the University of Nevada, Reno and dedicated in 2000. Supported primarily by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), its mission is to conduct research and to train students in the field of high-energy-density (HED) science, the study of the behavior of matter subject to conditions of extreme temperature and density. This rapidly developing field explores the fourth state of matter, called plasma, under conditions similar to those occurring in the interiors of stars, nuclear fusion reactors, and lightning bolts.

Recent news from the Department of Physics

A woman and man speak in front of a scientific poster.

Jaya Sicard receives National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

Sicard will study high energy density science at UC Berkeley

A gold lattice with yellow light hitting it and bouncing off as a rainbow, with swirls of orange and yellow in the background.

Surviving the entropy catastrophe

Superheated gold overturns long-held theory of superheating

An illustration of interwoven blue and red particles expanding outwards in a disk, with white particles curving upward in a bell curve shape and moving toward the center in a squiggly pattern.

Theoretical physicist finds evidence quantum geometry can increase critical temperatures of superconductors

Quantum geometry is an underexplored area of physics but could have far-reaching implications