Material Science Seminar

Research by Neutron Scattering: Tradition and Outlook Gian P. Felcher*Argonne National Laboratory,
Argonne IL 60439In the past decades neutron scattering has established itself as a primary tool to unravel the structure and dynamics of solids and liquids. In its prime, the technique opened entirely new fields in condensed matter research, by defining the role of hydrogen in organic materials, by determining the complex structures of spins in magnetic materials, by mapping the phonon spectra of crystalline solids and by defining the scaling coefficients in the neighborhood of phase transitions. Later, reaching maturity, neutron scattering become a general probe used by the wider scientific and technical community: chemistry, engineering, biology. In the same spirit, we now assist to a resurgent interest in neutron scattering, with new sources becoming ready in United States (Spallation Neutron Source), Japan (J-Park) and England (second target station of ISIS). These new sources produce neutron by a spallation process, rather than by fission as in conventional reactor, providing a brilliancy of "neutron light" up to hundredfold that presently available. These new sources will permit to unravel the issues raised by the manifacture of nanostructures, studying for instance the mechanisms of catalytic reactions, the phase transformations in biomimetic membranes and the synthesis of novel carbon nanomaterials. However, the new sources are creating a new challenge, by generating a tremendous amount of data that has to be digested and analyzed in reasonable time. It is becoming imperative (and this is a role of the computer community) to start a parallel effort to provide adequate and transparent visualization of the data, to assist with numerical analysis when the complexity of the problem prevents analytical solutions, and to generate simulated scattering patterns starting from reasonable models in real space.*work done under the auspices of the U.S. D.O.E., Office of B. E. S., under Contract W31-109-ENG-38.First year MASC students are required to attend.Refreshments will be provided.

Location: John Stauffer Science Lecture Hall (SLH) - 102

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Petra Pearce