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基础。物理系教职员工利用加速器进行原子物理、凝聚态物理、纳米科学、核物理和物理应用等领域的广泛研究项目，其中许多研究都得到了外部支持。加速器研究已经在主要期刊上发表了大量文章，并形成了几个研究生和本科生研究项目的基础。加速器功能齐全，使用量大，但现有的离子源陈旧且不可靠。获得和实施拟议的离子源将极大地提高加速器的运行和可靠性，提供更多的射束时间，并补充最近安装的Pelletron充电系统(用先前NSF-MRI赠款的资金购买)。此外，新的离子源将通过提供更多具有更高强度的离子束物种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，与教师导师密切合作，为学生提供独特的实践经验，使用主要的研究工具。这样的经历对大多数物理学生来说并不常见，特别是那些本科水平的学生或仍在高中的学生。近年来，该实验室已经成为卡拉马祖地区数学和科学中心的几个博士论文项目、硕士论文项目、物理专业荣誉学院论文项目以及高中生高级导师项目的基础。除了这些研究和研究培训用途外，30多年来，该实验室每学期都被用作与系本科生现代物理实验室相关的教学工具，该实验室通常由二年级学生参加，并作为高级实验室课程的一部分，由物理专业本科生和研究生参加。此外，来自地区高中和大学的学生访问实验室，将加速器作为他们物理课程的一部分。在它的历史上，加速器一直是成千上万的大学生和高中生的教育资源。预计，除了扩大加速器的研究和教育用途外，升级后的设施还将有助于该大学招收学生，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(密歇根州立大学阿贡、柏林哈恩-迈特纳研究所、波兰克拉科夫大学和匈牙利德布勒森核研究所)的研究人员来到WMU，在利用实验室及其资源的项目上与系教员合作。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。升级后的设施将有助于改善学习环境，使其更容易获得最先进的仪器设备。

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.