Physicist Burak Guzelturk Turns Laser Pulses Into Breakthroughs At The Advanced Photon Source
- Guzelturk uses synchronized lasers and X‑rays to trigger and probe phase changes in quantum and functional materials
- His work enables faster experiments and new pathways for energy-efficient devices and quantum technologies.
Physicist Burak Guzelturk grew up in a small industrial town on Turkey’s west coast, where a large petrochemical plant was a major local employer. Conversations with his father’s friends, some of whom were chemists and physicists, sparked his early interest in science.
Determined to become a scientist, Guzelturk studied hard. He did very well on Turkey’s national university entrance exam — ranking among the top 100 students nationwide — and enrolled at one of the country’s major universities. He would go on to earn a doctorate in electrical engineering.
“My Ph.D. research focused on nanomaterials and nanocrystals,” he said. “I was very interested in the optical properties of such materials for applications such as lasers and photodetectors. How do they work? How can we use them? And how can we improve them in actual devices?”
“I’m proud to be part of the APS as it strengthens its position as a leading light source. Open science is a driver of innovation, and I’m looking forward to the new research that comes out of the upgraded facility.” — Burak Guzelturk, physicist at the APS
Guzelturk’s path to the U.S. began with a postdoctoral appointment at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory about 10 years ago. There, he learned about DOE facilities and gained so much experience with accelerators, X-ray light sources and ultrafast science that, in his words, “It felt like a second Ph.D.!”
Like many other scientists from across the world, Guzelturk came to the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility located at the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, to do research. He returned three years later, in 2020, to work as a beamline scientist.
In this role, he and his team work with scientists from around the world at several APS beamlines, where experimental stations use the facility’s extremely bright pulsed X-ray beams. Many of the experiments they support run 24 hours per day over several days. Because each study is different, the team helps users set the specific conditions required — from sample temperature and pressure to X-ray energy and flux.
Guzelturk also brings a particular expertise in laser science, supporting experiments in which samples are first excited with a laser pulse and then probed with APS X-ray beams. These experiments allow scientists to study how light interacts with matter, as well as unveil new ways to control advanced materials with laser lights.
“I make sure the delivered laser pulses are in the desired condition needed by the experiment,” he said.
His team also ensures experiments are safe and repeatable. By providing redundant shielding and thoughtful design, they uphold safety, a Core Value at Argonne, while accommodating users’ requests.
“Users not infrequently arrive with ambitious, last-minute requests, and we sometimes need to improvise to ensure the success of the experiment while ensuring safe operation,” he said.
“We’ve gotten really good at ‘MacGyvering,’” he added, invoking the pop culture reference to exceptionally clever problem-solving. “We’re adapting setups and machining custom parts to make otherwise improbable things happen.”
When an experiment begins, the team uses various in-house software tools as the data comes in. They analyze the signal levels and help users make real-time decisions about when enough data has been collected and when it is time to move on to a new condition or a different sample.
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“At the APS, it’s always new, always exciting,” Guzelturk said. “Each research team arrives with exciting science questions and fresh challenges. They keep us on our feet.”
His can-do attitude has served him well since he started at the APS. The COVID-19 pandemic, which began shortly after he arrived, presented an intense initiation. Guzelturk recalled operating beamlines under strict restrictions.
“We could only have one person actively at a beamline, when usually it would be multiple,” he explained. “I made a lot of phone and video calls, asking, ‘This button or that one?’”
Though initially overwhelming, this experience forced Guzelturk to become very familiar with the APS very quickly.
Shortly after social distancing guidelines were lifted, another major change began. The APS Upgrade project shifted work at the facility for a year and a half as a new storage ring was installed.
He said, “The upgrade made us able to produce X-rays that are much smaller in size and more intense. This helps us collect better-looking data in a shorter time frame, especially for experiments like mine that combine lasers and X‑rays.”
His personal research uses lasers in tandem with X‑rays to drive materials into unique conditions so researchers can find ways to control their properties.
“The central question is: ‘Can light be used to push a material from one phase to another as temperature or pressure can do?’” he said. “For example, if light excitation can push a material from an insulator to a conductor, that would have clear practical implications in many fields.”
In quantum materials, laser excitation helps probe complex systems with competing phases. This may allow for intentional switching between phases, which could be used for quantum computing. In the energy field, materials activated by light may be able to split water into hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. In materials science, phase-change materials in CDs and DVDs are switched by lasers into different crystalline states to represent bits. Using laser control, scientists hope to develop more energy-efficient materials and systems.
“It’s very rewarding to see experiments come full circle,” Guzelturk said. “When data is translated into publications and produces deeper understanding of a novel physical mechanism, that’s when we really feel the impact of the work we do.”
His own research in nanotechnology received special recognition in 2024. The American Chemical Society (ACS) named him an ACS Nano Lectureship Laureate, an honor that typically goes to two people per year. Guzelturk is the first recipient from a national laboratory.
“I’m proud to be part of the APS as it strengthens its position as a leading light source,” he said. “Open science is a driver of innovation, and I’m looking forward to the new research that comes out of the upgraded facility.”
Jenna V. Wray is a freelance science writer who covers the contributions of engineers, physicists and technicians at Argonne, especially the Advanced Photon Source. She has also produced addiction-recovery content for treatment centers across the country. She has been writing, editing and producing content on science and other topics since 2018.
About The Advanced Photon Source
The U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory is one of the world’s most productive X-ray light source facilities. The APS provides high-brightness X-ray beams to a diverse community of researchers in materials science, chemistry, condensed matter physics, the life and environmental sciences, and applied research. These X-rays are ideally suited for explorations of materials and biological structures; elemental distribution; chemical, magnetic, electronic states; and a wide range of technologically important engineering systems from batteries to fuel injector sprays, all of which are the foundations of our nation’s economic, technological, and physical well-being. Each year, more than 5,000 researchers use the APS to produce over 2,000 publications detailing impactful discoveries, and solve more vital biological protein structures than users of any other X-ray light source research facility. APS scientists and engineers innovate technology that is at the heart of advancing accelerator and light-source operations. This includes the insertion devices that produce extreme-brightness X-rays prized by researchers, lenses that focus the X-rays down to a few nanometers, instrumentation that maximizes the way the X-rays interact with samples being studied, and software that gathers and manages the massive quantity of data resulting from discovery research at the APS.
This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.
About Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
About The U.S. Department of Energy’s
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.
Source: Argonne National Laboratory