High magnetic field and neutron scattering measurements of magnetic materials

拟议的研究计划取决于最近我在圣弗朗西斯·泽维尔大学的新实验室的增加，我在散裂中子源(SNS)的角色，以及我在先进食品和材料网络(AFMNet)的合作。我的实验室现在包括一个易于使用但强大的磁铁，可以到达非常高的磁场。正在田纳西州橡树岭建造的SNS将是世界上同类设施中最强大和最现代化的，我亲自参与了其中一台仪器的开发。AFMNet是自然科学家、工程师、健康研究人员、社会科学家和以及致力于食品和生物材料各个方面的律师们的进步。我的第一个研究重点是磁性材料。有一组材料具有波浪形的磁性结构，我想看看用不同的原子替换原子和施加磁场对这种结构的影响。研究这些相对简单的材料将告诉我们更多具有重要实际应用的相关、复杂的材料。另一组材料可以用作磁性传感器，用于计算机硬盘，或可能用于更快的新型电子产品。此外，我将寻找磁场造成的影响。但也可以通过挤压材料。另一类是形状记忆合金，这种合金在受热时可以弯曲并恢复原始形状，但也可以在磁场中膨胀和收缩。位于粉笔河的加拿大中子束中心或SNS的中子散射可以用来观察与它们有趣的性质密切相关的磁性结构和相互作用。我的团队正在研究由组成细菌外壁的分子形成的小球体(大约十亿分之一米宽)。小角中子散射就像一个强大的显微镜，可以观察这些球体与简单的化学物质或新抗生素候选者相互作用时的行为。研究这种相互作用并看看我们是否能用物理模型来描述它是非常重要的，因为细菌在人类健康中扮演着如此重要的角色。

The proposed research program depends on recent additions to my new laboratory at St. Francis Xavier University, my role at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), and my collaboration in the Advanced Foods and Materials Network (AFMNet).  My laboratory now includes an easy-to-use but powerful magnet, which can reach very high magnetic fields.  The SNS being built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will be the most powerful and modern scientific research facility of its type in the world, and I am personally involved in the development of one of the instruments.  AFMNet is a national collaboration of natural scientists, engineers, health researchers, social scientists, and lawyers working on various facets of food and bio-material advances.  My first research thrust is looking at magnetic materials.  One group of materials has a wavelike magnetic structure, and I want to see how that structure is affected by replacing atoms with different ones and by applying a magnetic field.  Studying these relatively simple materials will tell us more about related, complicated materials with important practical applications.  Another group has materials which could be used as a magnetic sensors, in computer hard drives, or possibly in new, faster types of electronics.  Again, I will be looking for effects caused by magnetic fields, but also by squeezing the material.  The other group is shape-memory alloys, which can be bent and return to their original shape if heated, but also expand and contract in a magnetic field.  Neutron scattering at either the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre in Chalk River or the SNS can be used to look at the magnetic structures and interactions, which are closely related to their interesting properties.  In AFMNet, my team is studying small spheres (roughly 100 billionths of metre across) formed from the molecules that make up the outer walls of bacteria.  Small-angle neutron scattering acts as a powerful microscope to see how these spheres behave as they interact with simple chemicals or with candidates for new antibiotics.  Studying this interaction and seeing if we can describe it using physical models is very important, since bacteria play such an important role in human health.