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

该奖项旨在探索量子钻石显微镜用户网络所带来的科学效益。它将为理解岩石磁性的一种新的变革性工具的用户社区奠定基础。量子金刚石显微镜（QDM）在磁场成像中提供亚微米级的空间分辨率，能够精确识别和分析天然岩石样品中的铁磁载流子。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接收实验室举办两次培训研讨会，并举办为期3天的社区研讨会，届时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思想，并确定岩石磁性研究的未来方向。这个项目将大大增加一种变革性仪器的可用性，这种仪器可以应用于理解地球发电机的历史，构造板块的运动，以及美国西部自最后一次冰川极大期以来的降水历史等许多其他学科。QDM的科学研究将提高对古气候和污染的认识，这两者都可以使用高分辨率磁场成像方法进行研究。这项工作将包括培训一名博士后以及研究生和本科生如何使用一项新技术。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.