Neutron Science In the News – 2013
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January
Spallation Neutron Source returns to action
Knoxville News Sentinel 1/9
The Spallation Neutron Source, after rocky times this fall due to back-to-back target vessel failures and a two-week shutdown during the holidays, is up and running again, and there are plans to keep it in a production mode through the end of May to make up for lost ground.
Operations manager Kevin Jones said the SNS resumed operations for research users at about 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
"SNS is operating at the planned power level of 850 kW to preserve target lifetime until a second spare target is available," Jones said in an email message.
"All user program instruments are taking beam for experiments and we look forward to a productive long run through May 30, 2013," he said. "During the two week shutdown we successfully completed a complex power outage for the SNS Target Building and part of the Center for Nanophase Material Sciences to tie in the utility services for the new Chestnut Ridge Maintenance Facility that is under construction."
Aerodynamic levitator allows samples to 'float on air'
PhysOrg 1/8
Both liquids and glasses are disordered materials in which the atoms don't establish long-range patterns. Using neutron scattering to probe that disordered system at the atomic level researchers can learn how to make new and potentially better glasses for applications such as lasers and fiber optics, as well as gain a better understanding of geological materials.
To study liquids and glasses, a collaborating team from Materials Development Inc. in Arlington Heights, Illinois; Stony Brook University in New York; Argonne National Laboratory (ANL); and the Neutron Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a container-less sample environment, in which a drop of pure liquid literally "floats" on a jet of flowing gas.
This aerodynamic levitator sample environment has been installed on the Nanoscale-Ordered Materials Diffractometer (NOMAD) at the Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL. There, the research team is using it to study small drops of liquids such as calcium, magnesium, and aluminum silicates.
"We study liquids as they transform to glass," says Richard Weber, the principal investigator and the owner of Materials Development Inc. "That is important because many materials are processed as liquids at some stage in their life, such as silicon wafers that start as sand and then are converted into silicon by melting and processing. "We look at the liquid state, measure its structure, and see how it actually transforms into glass."
