EAGER: Building a Network of Quantum Diamond Microscope (QDM) Facilities and Researchers

这个热切的奖项是为了探索量子钻石显微镜用户网络带来的科学利益。它将为了解岩石磁性的一种新的变革性工具的用户社区奠定基础。量子钻石显微镜(QDM)在磁场成像中提供亚微米的空间分辨率，使精确识别和分析天然岩石样品中的铁磁载体成为可能。该项目将包括建造两个QDM装置，分发给用户设施，使QDM可供广泛的用户使用。该团队还将为QDM接受方实验室举办两个培训研讨会和一个为期3天的社区研讨会，对磁场成像及其应用感兴趣的研究人员将聚集在一起，交流想法并确定未来岩石磁学研究的方向。该项目将极大地增加变革性仪器的可用性，该仪器可用于了解地球发电机的历史、构造板块随时间的运动以及自上次冰川高峰期以来美国西部的降水历史。QDM带来的科学研究将提高对古气候和污染的理解，这两者都可以用高分辨率磁场成像方法进行研究。这项工作将包括对博士后助理以及研究生和本科生进行使用新技术的培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This EAGER Award is to explore the scientific benefits that come from a network of Quantum Diamond Microscope users. It will lay the foundations of a community of users for a new transformative instrument for understanding of rock magnetism. The quantum diamond microscope (QDM) offers sub-micrometer spatial resolution in the imaging of magnetic fields, enabling the precise identification and analysis of ferromagnetic carriers in natural rock samples. The project will consist of the construction of two QDM setups to be distributed to user facilities, making the QDM available for a wide range of users. This team will also host two training workshops for the QDM recipient laboratories and a 3-day community workshop where researchers with interest in magnetic field imaging and its applications will gather to exchange ideas and define future directions in the study of rock magnetism.This project will greatly increase the availability of a transformative instrument that can be applied to understanding of, among many other subjects, the history of the Earth's dynamo, the motion of tectonic plates through time, and the history of precipitation in the Western US since the last glacial maximum. The scientific research enabled by the QDM will improve understanding of paleoclimate and pollution, both of which may be studied using high resolution magnetic field imaging methods. The work will involve the training of a post-doctoral associate as well as students at the graduate and undergraduate level in the use of a new technology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.