MRI: Equipment acquisition for WMU accelerator lab upgrade

西密歇根大学（WMU）加速器实验室在帮助物理系实现其研究和教育目标方面发挥着关键作用，为教师研究、博士论文和硕士论文研究、本科生实验室和推广活动提供了基础。物理系教员利用加速器在原子物理、凝聚态物理、纳米科学、核物理和物理应用领域进行广泛的研究项目，其中许多研究得到了外部支持。加速器研究已经在主要期刊上发表了大量论文，并为研究生和本科生的一些研究项目奠定了基础。加速器的功能和大量使用，但现有的离子源是过时和不可靠的。拟议离子源的获取和实施将极大地改善加速器的运行和可靠性，使更多的束流时间可用，并补充最近安装的Pelletron充电系统（由早期NSF-MRI拨款购买）。此外，新的离子源将通过提供更广泛的离子束种类和更高的强度来增强实验室的能力。培养未来的科学家是实验室的一项特别重要的职能。在这方面，学生将与教师导师密切合作，获得使用主要研究仪器的独特实践经验。这样的经历对大多数物理专业的学生来说并不常见，尤其是那些在本科阶段或还在高中的学生。近年来，该实验室已成为多个博士学位论文项目、硕士学位论文项目、物理专业荣誉学院论文项目和卡拉马祖地区数学与科学中心高中生高级导师项目的基础。除了这些研究和研究训练用途外，30多年来，该实验室每学期都被用作与该系本科现代物理实验室相关的教学工具，该实验室通常由大二学生参加，并作为高级本科物理专业和研究生参加的高级实验课程的一部分。此外，来自当地高中和大学的学生参观实验室，将加速器作为他们物理课程的一部分。在其历史上，加速器已经为成千上万的大学和高中学生提供了教育资源。预计，除了扩大加速器的研究和教育用途外，升级后的设施将有助于向大学招收学生，并有助于吸引更多的外部合作者。目前，来自国内和国际其他机构（阿贡、密歇根州立大学、柏林哈恩-迈特纳研究所、波兰克拉科夫雅盖隆大学和匈牙利德布雷森核研究所）的研究人员来到WMU，与部门教师合作，利用实验室及其资源开展项目。通过其多样化的用途和应用，WMU加速器实验室以一种在大多数大学很少遇到的方式将研究与教育紧密结合在一起。升级后的设施将有助于改善学习环境，更多地使用最先进的仪器。

The Western Michigan University (WMU) accelerator laboratory plays a key role in helping the department of physics meet its research and educational goals, providing the basis for faculty research, Ph.D. dissertation and M.A. thesis research, undergraduate laboratories, and outreach activities. Department of physics faculty utilize the accelerator for a broad spectrum of research projects in the areas of atomic physics, condensed matter physics, nanoscience, nuclear physics, and physics applications, with much of this research receiving external support. Accelerator research has resulted in numerous publications in leading journals and has formed the basis for several graduate and undergraduate student research projects. The accelerator is functional and heavily used, but the existing ion sources are obsolete and unreliable. Acquisition and implementation of the proposed ion sources will greatly improve accelerator operation and reliability, make more beamtime available, and complement the recent installation of a Pelletron charging system (purchased with funds from an earlier NSF-MRI grant). Moreover, the new ion sources will enhance the capabilities of the laboratory by providing a wider array of ion beam species with higher intensities. The training of future scientists is a particularly important function of the laboratory. In this regard, students are provided unique hands-on experiences with major research instrumentation in close collaboration with faculty mentors. Such experiences are not often available to most physics students, especially those at the undergraduate level or those still in high school. During recent years, the laboratory has formed the basis for several Ph.D. dissertation projects, M.A. thesis projects, Honors College thesis projects for physics majors, and the senior mentorship projects of high school students from the Kalamazoo Area Mathematics and Science Center. Apart from these research and research training uses, the laboratory has been used every semester for more than 30 years as an instructional tool in connection with the department's undergraduate modern physics laboratory that is typically taken by sophomore level students, and as part of an advanced laboratory course taken by upper level undergraduate physics majors and graduate students. Additionally, students from area high schools and colleges visit the laboratory to make use of the accelerator as part of their physics curricula. During its history the accelerator has served as an educational resource for literally thousands of university and high school students. It is anticipated that, in addition to expanding the research and educational uses of the accelerator, the upgraded facility will help in the recruitment of students to the university and help to attract additional outside collaborators. Presently, researchers from other institutions, nationally and internationally (Argonne, Michigan State University, the Hahn-Meitner-Institut, Berlin, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, and the Institute for Nuclear Research, Debrecen, Hungary), come to WMU to collaborate with department faculty on projects utilizing the laboratory and its resources. Through its diversity of uses and applications, the WMU accelerator laboratory closely integrates research with education in a manner that is rarely encountered at most universities. The upgraded facility will help to enhance the learning environment with greater access to state-of-the-art instrumentation.