Expansion of the Center for High Resolution Neutron Scattering (CHRNS) at NIST

National Institute Of Standards And Technology, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The NSF/NIST Center for High Resolution Scattering (CHRNS) at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) operates and develops state-of-the-art neutron scattering instrumentation for use by the general scientific community. Over the past decade, research carried out on the CHRNS instruments has had a major impact on U.S. science and industry in fields as diverse as polymer science, colloid chemistry, biology, porous materials, and magnetism and superconductivity. More than 250 scientists, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students currently use the CHRNS instruments each year. This award from the National Facilities and Instrumentation program supports the expansion and associated operations of the Center for High Resolution Neutron Scattering at NIST. The NCNR has recently commissioned three cold neutron spectrometers: a spin echo spectrometer, a backscattering spectrometer, and a disk chopper time-of-flight spectrometer that are now incorporated into CHRNS. These new instruments extend the time scale that can be probed using neutron scattering in the U.S. by more than three orders of magnitude allowing scientists to probe dynamic processes from 10-7 to 10-13 seconds. This provides an opportunity to create an entirely new subfield of neutron spectroscopy in America with applications ranging from, for example, polymers, micelles, biomaterials, ionic conductors and fuel cell materials, new tailored catalysts, membranes and molecular sieves as well as a wide variety of magnetic phenomena. This cooperative agreement provides the scientific community with increased access to these spectrometers. Proposals for the use of these facilities are peer reviewed and allocated measurement time by a Program Advisory Committee in a manner approved by the NSF. In addition to the three new instruments, this project enhances user support in the areas of complex sample environments and improved data acquisition, reduction, and analysis software. Moreover, it is anticipated that the creation of the first world-class capabilities for cold neutron spectroscopy in the U.S. will have considerable impact on graduate research and education. Just as the CHRNS instruments now welcome over 150 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers each year, this project allows many more to visit CHRNS in order to pursue training and research in high resolution cold neutron scattering methods thereby producing a large contingent of informed young users for the future.