MRI: Acquisition of an ion accelerator and instrumentation upgrade

该合同允许东卡罗莱纳大学（ECU）物理系用基于新的正离子串列加速器的现代离子束系统替换不可靠的20世纪70年代老式离子加速器和支持束组件。新系统将提供能量范围为300 keV至8 MeV的稳定、高能轻和重离子束，非常适合实验室在辐射物理、气体和固体中的原子相互作用以及痕量元素分析方面的研究。这项研究涉及教师，研究生和许多本科生。除了基础和应用物理学研究，该实验室正在与生物学，地质学，人类学和ECU布罗迪医学院的部门进行跨学科研究。在这个设施的研究直接有助于ECU和北卡罗来纳州系统的大学的中央使命，培养学生在研究生和本科生水平。特别是，它填补了该地区，国家和国家的迫切需要，通过培养学生在科学。获得的技术知识，更重要的是批判性思维能力的发展，通过这种实验物理培训可以广泛应用于科学和工程的所有领域。这些训练有素的学生将有助于在美国急需的技术识字的劳动力。东卡罗莱纳大学主要服务于北卡罗来纳州东部的农村地区，经济萧条，少数民族学生人数相对较多。由拟议的仪器支持的学生培训将继续包括，因为它在过去，少数民族学生在科学，特别是在物理严重不足。拟议的仪器也将作为一个招聘工具，以提高学生对科学的兴趣，并鼓励学生参与研究。

This award allows the replacement of the unreliable 1970s vintage ion accelerator and supporting beam components in the Department of Physics at East Carolina University (ECU) with a modern ion beam system based on a new positive-ion tandem accelerator. The new system will provide stable, energetic light and heavy ion beams in an energy range of 300 keV to 8 MeV, perfectly suited for the laboratory's research in radiation physics, atomic interactions in gases and solids, and trace element analysis. The research involves faculty, graduate students, and numerous undergraduate students. In addition to basic and applied physics research, the laboratory is being used for interdisciplinary research with the Departments of Biology, Geology, Anthropology, and the ECU Brody School of Medicine. The research at this facility contributes directly to the central mission of ECU and the University of North Carolina system by training students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. In particular, it fills a critical need in the region, the state, and the nation by training students in science. The technical knowledge gained, and more importantly the critical thinking skills developed, through this training in experimental physics can be applied broadly across all fields of science and engineering. These highly trained students will contribute to the technically literate workforce critically needed in the United States. East Carolina University serves the primarily rural, economically depressed eastern portion of North Carolina, and has a relatively high minority student population. The student training supported by the proposed instrumentation will continue to include, as it has in the past, minority students that are severely underrepresented in science, and particularly in physics. The proposed instrumentation will also serve as a recruiting tool to increase student interest in science and encourage student participation in research.