CSEC-Based Facility for Advanced X-ray Characterisation of Materials

x射线衍射和分析支持广泛的科学和工程，从物理到生物科学和材料发现。在进行耗时且在某些情况下昂贵的性能测量和/或极端压力和温度下的光谱测量之前，确定新材料的组成、相识别和结构对于表征至关重要。它还提供了一种监测相演变的手段，这对于理解重要材料的稳定性和探测关键性能的结构顺序至关重要，作为外部参数（如压力，电场/磁场和温度）的函数。本提案的目的是为ue CSEC的x射线衍射设备提供重大升级。拟议的设备将允许在CSEC的极端条件下进行衍射测量，在使用现有设备进行热力学测量之前表征材料，并支持在大规模中子和光源设施进行测量。该设施将通过一个由管理小组在线管理和监测的请求系统提供给学术和工业用户使用。作为该提案的一部分，需要三件设备：1)用于验证或确定样品成分的XRF设备。这将用于对衍射测量施加限制，允许对散装样品进行分析，并且需要很少的样品制备。最后一个方面将允许我们向CSE以外的广泛用户社区提供该设备的使用。2) x射线粉末衍射仪，可容纳模块化样品环境，以便在压力，温度，流量或湿度条件下获得可发布的数据。该设施将允许亚稳态材料的研究，也将用于支持大规模的设施测量。3)微聚焦、实时的单晶劳厄衍射仪将用于验证材料的晶体质量，并对小单晶进行排列。微聚焦能力将允许小单晶的大型阵列在大规模设备实验之前对齐。该设施将用于支持大型设施的用户，允许在实验室环境中完成校准，而不使用稀缺和昂贵的大型设施时间。它将被工业和工程合作者用于表征相关材料的畴和晶粒。这三件设备的组合在一个实验室在CSEC将提供一个独特的设施在英国。在一次实验室访问期间使用所有三种技术测试样品的能力将节省大量时间，使该设施对来自工业和其他学术机构的外部用户特别有吸引力。

X-ray diffraction and analysis supports a broad range of science and engineering, from physical to biological sciences and materials discovery. It is vital for the characterisation of new materials to determine composition, phase identity and structure before carrying out time consuming and, in some cases, expensive property measurements and/or spectroscopic measurements at extreme pressures and temperatures. It also provides a means of monitoring phase evolution, vital for understanding the stability of important materials and probing structural orders, key to critical properties, as a function of external parameters such as pressure, electric/magnetic fields, and temperature. The purpose of this proposal is to provide a significant upgrade to the X-ray diffraction facilities based at CSEC, UoE. The proposed facility will allow diffraction measurements to be carried out under extreme conditions in CSEC, characterise materials before thermodynamic measurements using existing equipment, and also support measurements at large scale neutron and light source facilities. Use of the facility will be offered to academic and industrial users through a request system to be managed online and monitored by the management group. Three pieces of equipment are requested as part of this proposal:1) An XRF device for validating or determining sample composition. This will be used to place constraints on diffraction measurements, allow analysis of bulk samples and will require little sample preparation. This final aspect will allow us to offer the use of this piece of equipment to a broad user community outside CSE. 2) An X-ray powder diffractometer that can host modular sample environments for publishable data to be obtained at pressure, temperature, under conditions of flow or humidity. This facility will allow metastable materials to be investigated and will also be used to support large scale facility measurements. 3) A micro-focussed, real-time, Laue diffractometer for single crystals will be used to validate crystalline quality of materials and also to align small single crystals. The micro focussing capability will allow large arrays of small single crystals to be aligned before large scale facility experiments. This facility will be used to support users of large scale facilities allowing alignment to be completed in a laboratory setting and not using scarce and expensive large scale facility time. It will be used by industrial and engineering collaborators for characterising domains and crystal grains of relevant materials.The combination of these three pieces of equipment in one single laboratory at CSEC will provide a unique facility in the UK. The ability to test samples using all three techniques during one laboratory visit will produce considerable time savings, making this facility especially attractive to external users, both from industry and other academic institutions.