Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite in the Maxwell Centre, University of Cambridge

新材料的创造是技术进步的核心。拟议的先进材料表征套件提供了一项关键能力，将从实验室制备具有新物理特性的材料过渡到将其用于变革性技术。该套装将包括定制的多功能磁场温度测量系统、SQUID振动样品磁强计、物理性能测量系统、单晶X射线衍射仪和劳厄相机。该设备将提供必要的尖端能力，以表征新材料的显著特性并评估其技术前景。高级材料套件的一个关键方面是它的跨学科特征：用户不仅将跨越剑桥大学和其他英国高等院校的化学、物理、材料科学和冶金以及地球科学系的材料物理，而且重要的是，还包括工业合作伙伴--与他们的联系对于将新材料转化为技术相关应用至关重要。剑桥大学正在进行世界领先研究的各种先进材料的结构、磁、电、热和光学材料特性将使用该设备套件进行表征。该设备将提供高灵敏度、快速周转时间、自动或半自动操作以及多功能性能测量的优势，远远超过剑桥目前的能力，在某些情况下，甚至超过世界任何地方的能力。重要的是，先进材料表征套件将得到熟练的技术人员的支持，以维护设备，并在需要时提供用户帮助。剑桥现有的世界级研究将得到加强，新的研究途径将包括先进合金、锂离子和替代电池的电极、硅基技术以外的电子设备、无机-有机混合框架、多铁性、纳米结构材料、医疗设备、新型超导体、光伏/光催化剂和固态冷却剂。这些研究领域跨越EPSRC确定的具有战略重要性的许多类别，包括(A)催化，(B)凝聚态物质：电子结构，(C)凝聚态物质：磁性和磁性材料，(D)电化学科学，(E)功能陶瓷和无机物，(F)能源应用材料，(G)光子材料和超材料，(H)聚合物材料，(I)材料工程金属及合金，(J)自旋电子学，(K)超导。英国的学术和工业用户基础将极大地受益于这种最先进的测量特征能力所提供的竞争优势。尤其是工业用户将获得超出其传统使用能力范围的先进材料表征设备，这将对新技术的高级材料开发产生直接影响。此外，先进材料表征套件将为研究生提供理想的培训场所，特别是在EPSRC支持的博士培训中心(CDTS)，他们将构成该设备套件的一些核心用户，并将获得与材料相关的技术专业知识。麦克斯韦尔中心专门为跨学科和跨学术-行业联系而设计的最先进的设备、技术支持和位置相结合，将确保多用户先进材料表征套件的有效运行。

The creation of new materials is at the heart of technological advances. The proposed Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite presents a crucial capability that will bridge the step from laboratory preparation of materials with novel physical properties to their use in transformational technologies. The suite will comprise a bespoke Versatile Magnetic Field-Temperature Measurement System, a SQUID-Vibrating Sample Magnetometer, a Physical Properties Measurement System, a Single Crystal X-ray Diffractometer and Laue Camera. This equipment will provide cutting edge capabilities necessary to characterise salient properties of novel materials and evaluate their technical promise. A crucial aspect of the advanced materials suite is its interdisciplinary character: users will span not only the departments of Chemistry, Physics, Materials Science and Metallurgy, and Materials Physics of Earth Sciences across Cambridge and other UK HEIs, but also, importantly, industrial partners - linkages with whom are vital for the translation of new materials into technologically relevant applications. Structural, magnetic, electrical, thermal, and optical materials properties over a diverse range of advanced materials in which Cambridge is conducting world leading research will be characterised using the equipment suite. The equipment will offer advantages of high sensitivity, rapid turnaround time, automated or semi-automated operation, and versatile properties measurement, far exceeding currently available capabilities in Cambridge, and in some cases, anywhere in the world. Crucially, the Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite will be supported by skilled technicians to maintain the equipment, and to provide user assistance where needed.Specific areas where existing world-class research in Cambridge will be boosted and new research avenues explored will include advanced alloys, electrodes for Li-ion & alternative batteries, electronic devices beyond silicon-based technology, inorganic-organic hybrid frameworks, multiferroics, nanostructured materials, medical devices, novel superconductors, photovoltaics/photocatalysts, and solid state coolants. These research areas span a substantial number of categories identified by EPSRC as being strategically important including (a) Catalysis, (b) Condensed Matter: Electronic Structure, (c) Condensed Matter: Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, (d) Electrochemical Sciences, (e) Functional Ceramics & Inorganics, (f) Materials for Energy Applications, (g) Photonic Materials and Metamaterials, (h) Polymer Materials, (i) Materials Engineering - Metals & Alloys, (j) Spintronics, (k) Superconductivity. The UK academic and industrial user base will greatly benefit from the competitive edge provided by this state-of-the-art measurement characterisation capability. Industrial users in particular will gain access to advanced materials characterisation equipment outside the scope of their traditional usage capabilities, with immediate impact on superior materials development for new technologies. Further, the Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite will provide an ideal training ground for graduate students, particularly in EPSRC supported Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), who will constitute some of the core users of the equipment suite, and will gain expertise in materials-related techniques. The combination of state-of-the-art equipment, technical support, and location in the Maxwell Centre designed expressly for interdisciplinary and cross academic-industrial linkages will ensure the effective operation of the multi-user Advanced Materials Characterisation Suite.