Mid-scale RI:1 (M1:IP): A world-class Neutron Spin Echo Spectrometer for the Nation: UD-NIST-UMD Consortium

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This award from the Midscale Research Instrumentation -1 program supports the acquisition, implementation and commissioning of a world-class neutron spin echo spectrometer for the nation. The University of Delaware's Center for Neutron Science working together with the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Center for Neutron Research and the University of Maryland are creating a world-class neutron spin echo spectrometer to strengthen U.S. research infrastructure with substantial benefit to the soft matter, biological sciences, and engineering research communities. Upon completion, the instrument will be a key part of the NSF-NIST funded Center for High Resolution Neutron Scattering, a national user facility, and enable US scientists to measure materials and their dynamics of direct importance to humanity, e.g. proteins used as biopharmaceuticals, biomembranes and transport across such membranes in living cells, advanced nanocomposites with superior water purification properties and more powerful, longer-life batteries. The instrument uniquely provides these and additional measurement capabilities by closing a critical gap in US research instrumentation infrastructure, with significant demand from academia and industry alike. The project also educates an advanced workforce to make efficient and effective use of this national resource.The University of Delaware's Center for Neutron Science (CNS) together with the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) and the University of Maryland (UMD) are building a world-class neutron spin echo spectrometer capable of measuring dynamical processes that occur on the timescale of 100s of nanoseconds and longer in soft matter and biological systems. With more than double the accessible time scale and an order of magnitude increase in effective intensity at shorter wavelength, this instrument enables fundamentally new scientific investigations into the dynamical properties of soft matter and biological materials, i.e. structure-function investigations of nanoscale dynamics on the nano-to-micro second timescales, heretofore impossible in the U.S. The instrument is a central component of the NSF-NIST Center for High Resolution Neutron Scattering (CHRNS). To ensure a broad scientific application, education and outreach initiatives promote its effective scientific use as well as identify new scientific problems and user communities. The project also educates an advanced workforce to make efficient and effective use of this national resource.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.