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Immediate and Long-Term Competitiveness of the NCNR
Approximately 15 years ago, investments were initiated to upgrade and to build new and advanced neutron scattering facilities around the world. Europe, Asia, and Australia have come to account for approximately 75 to 85 percent of the neutron-scattering capabilities worldwide. The increasingly widespread availability of well-characterized and intense neutron sources has been responsible for new insights into the science of neutrons and related improvements in neutron optics and instrumentation. Improvements of the resolution of experimental observables, enhancements in the efficiency of data collection, and new developments in the theoretical analysis of experimental neutron scattering and imaging data have followed. Consequently, applications that include imaging and trace element analysis have become more viable than in prior years. Concurrently, new sample environments that simultaneously accommodate experimental probes, such as x rays, of samples that may be undergoing external perturbations, such as magnetic fields and dynamic or static mechanical stresses, have enabled unprecedented insights into the properties of condensed matter. Neutron scattering has an important impact on diverse fields such as engineering, condensed-matter physics, medicine, pharmacy, biology, chemistry, and geology. Neutron scattering has important technological implications for areas such as oil recovery, the processing of paints and personal healthcare products, energy (fuel cells, batteries, thermoelectrics, solar cells), and manufacturing.
Since the 1990s, the NCNR has been among the world’s leading facilities for the study of neutrons and their applications. With the very recent completion of the new source for producing cold neutrons and the guide hall, the NCNR is well positioned to investigate some of the most important and impactful problems in condensed matter, including superconductivity and magnetism, energy (batteries, fuel cells, and methane storage), biomedical sciences, pharmaceuticals, and oil recovery. Infrastructural developments at the NCNR include new instruments such as the vSANS technique, designed to improve capabilities in the spatial and temporal properties of materials. The relocation and upgrade of the NSE spectrometer, in collaboration with the Center for High Resolution Neutron Scattering (CHRNS) is also significant. The compensation coils were developed at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL). This upgraded instrument will be among the best NSE instruments in the world.
Other developments include the cold neutron imaging station, which is enabling new neutron imaging experiments of elements such as hydrogen in metals or imaging samples of virtually any geometrical configuration, including engine parts. The instrumentation development plans are imaginative. Current and planned instruments (the 3He wide-angle polarizers, MACS II, and CANDOR) represent potential game-changing advances. The new guide hall sample laboratory will be state of the art, enabling researchers to take advantage of the most exciting developments in sample preparation processes and techniques. The continued improvements of sample environments, flow cells, and strain devices create an excellent environment in which to make important scientific discoveries that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.
The output of the NCNR remains consistently high. During the past year, the NCNR has served the research needs of more than 2,270 individuals from 241 academic institutions and government laboratories with 28 instruments. The NCNR’s record of operating about 250 days per year compares favorably with neutron facilities around the world. A comparison of days of operation per year across
worldwide neuron centers is reported in the previous assessment report.1 With more than 700 proposals per year, the request for beam time (2,967 days) is 2.1 times that of available time, reflecting an important demand for the use of neutrons to study the properties of condensed matter. The new capabilities enable the NCNR to solve industrially relevant problems. Achievements include improved understanding of lipid bilayers and lipid–protein interactions, superconductivity and magnetism, and polymer nanocomposites. Some of these advances are unique and were possible only because of the recently developed capabilities at the NCNR.
Through effective management practices and collaborations the NCNR, one of only two neutron user programs in the United States is well positioned to play an essential role in the development of new science and enable potentially important technological advances. The high level of competence of NCNR staff and their effective collaborations with users are largely responsible for scientific publications in high-quality international journals. The high productivity level in relation to its instrument capabilities is well exemplified by the following example: Worldwide, more than 100 publications per year, in different fields, from the life sciences, materials sciences, and physics, rely on neutron reflectivity experiments. The NCNR operates only 3 of the 25 reflectometers in the world, yet it accounts for approximately 33 percent of the publications. NIST’s collaborative program with NSF, CHRNS, has an important impact on the discovery of new science and the training of young scientists. The CHRNS instruments are used by university, government, and industrial researchers in materials science, chemistry, biology, and condensed-matter physics to investigate materials such as polymers, metals, ceramics, magnetic materials, porous media, fluids and gels, and biological molecules. An extensive list of CHRNS publications is presented on the NIST website.2
According to leaders of the NCNR user groups and to user surveys, the user program is highly effective in that it identifies the most meritorious proposals for beam time received by the NCNR; the outcomes are manifested in the quality of the publications, almost all of which are in respected, refereed archival journals. NCNR management has established an effective mechanism to solicit feedback from users that informs its decisions. Based on user surveys and other feedback, the NCNR facility is satisfying the needs of the user community..
With the completion of the new guide hall, the advanced sample environment capabilities, and effective management, coupled with input from the user community, the NCNR is poised to make important scientific and technological advances.
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1 National Research Council, An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research—Fiscal Year 2013, The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.
2 NIST Center for Neutron Research, “CHRNS Instrument Publication Lists,” https://www.ncnr.nist.gov/programs/CHRNS/publists.html, last modified January 13, 2015.
