Augmenting Oxford's Centre for Advanced Electron Spin Resonance with a Bruker Elexsys E580 X/Q-band pulsed ESR spectrometer

高级电子自旋共振中心(CAESR)是牛津大学物理系、化学系、材料系、生物化学系和病理学系的研究人员合作的结果。它成立于2006年，得到了EPSRC和牛津大学的大力支持，为牛津大学的电子自旋共振(ESR)多学科研究提供现代设备和学术重点。CAESR取得了惊人的成功。它已经在牛津建立了一个世界领先的ESR光谱学家社区，其利益相关者现在远远超出了最初的共同申请者群体。它已经在国内和国际上建立了作为ESR卓越中心的声誉。CAESR的科学生产力及其支持的研究项目目前受到现有设备的两个限制的严重限制：(I)仅有9.5 GHz(X波段)和95 GHz(W波段)两个频率；以及(Ii)“主力”X波段的实验能力严重不足。我们建议加强CAESR的设施，配备Bruker Elexsys E580 X/Q波段脉冲电子自旋共振谱仪。它将用第三个频率(Q波段，35 GHz)增强CAESR的设施，并将提供CAESR不断扩大的参与者社区所需的实验能力。该仪器将显著加强CAESR现有的研究项目，并支持一系列令人兴奋的新活动，涵盖广泛的EPSRC优先领域，并解决EPSRC的每个物理和化学重大挑战。它将允许CAESR以创新的方式将ESR应用于新的科学问题，并引领ESR的方法学发展。该仪器具有两个使其在英国独一无二的特点：Q波段的高功率，提供可用的最短、最高带宽的脉冲；以及任意波形发生器，允许在交钥匙ESR系统中首次直接合成复杂脉冲。在20%的时间里，通过与CAESR社区的合作，以及与总部设在曼彻斯特的EPSRC国家EPR设施的合同，更广泛的英国ESR社区将可以访问该仪器。来自集成磁共振博士培训中心(总部设在沃里克)的年轻科学家将有机会在CAESR的年度培训期间探索新仪器中集成的任意波形发生器和高功率放大器所提供的尖端实验能力。该仪器的制造商Bruker试图通过为技术经理提供工资支持来加强与CAESR的联系。通过这种互动，Bruker将收到有关仪器限制、可能的升级以及新的技术和方法发展的第一手反馈，CAESR将在正常使用案例之外的操作仪器方面获得优先的技术援助。

The Centre for Advanced Electron Spin Resonance (CAESR) is a collaboration of researchers from the Oxford University Departments of Physics, Chemistry, Materials, Biochemistry, and Pathology. It was founded in 2006 with substantial support from EPSRC and the University to provide modern equipment and an academic focus for Oxford's multi-disciplinary research in electron spin resonance (ESR). CAESR has been spectacularly successful. It has nucleated a world-leading community of ESR spectroscopists in Oxford, and its stakeholders now extend well beyond the original group of co-applicants. It has established a national and international reputation as a centre of excellence in ESR. CAESR's scientific productivity and the research projects that it supports are now significantly constrained by two limitations of the existing equipment: (i) the availability of only two frequencies, 9.5 GHz (X-band) and 95 GHz (W-band); and (ii) a severe shortage of experimental capacity at the "work-horse" X-band frequency.We propose to reinforce CAESR's facilities with a Bruker Elexsys E580 X/Q-band pulsed electron spin resonance spectrometer. It will augment CAESR's facilities with a third frequency (Q-band, 35 GHz), and it will offer the experimental capacity needed by CAESR's growing community of participants. This instrument will significantly enhance CAESR's existing research projects and enable an exciting portfolio of new activities, covering a wide range of EPSRC priority areas and addressing each of EPSRC's Physics and Chemistry Grand Challenges. It will allow CAESR to apply ESR in innovative ways to new scientific problems and to lead methodological developments in ESR.The instrument has two features that will make it unique in the UK: high-power at Q-band, offering the shortest, highest-bandwidth pulses available; and an arbitrary waveform generator, allowing the direct synthesis of complex pulses for the first time in a turn-key ESR system. For 20% of the time, the instrument will be accessible to the wider UK ESR community through collaboration with the CAESR community, and via a contract with the EPSRC National EPR Facility based in Manchester. Young scientists from the Integrated Magnetic Resonance Centre for Doctoral Training (based in Warwick) will have the opportunity to explore the cutting-edge experimental capabilities offered by the arbitrary waveform generator and high-power amplifier incorporated in the new instrument, during annual training sessions at CAESR.The instrument's manufacturer, Bruker, seeks to strengthen links with CAESR by offering salary support for the Technical Manager. Through this interaction Bruker will receive first-hand feedback on instrument limitations, possible upgrades and new technical and methodological developments, and CAESR will receive preferential technical assistance in operating the instrumentation beyond its normal use-cases.