July 2008 Neutron School Briefing
28 August 2008
First Users at OPAL
The participants of the "ANSTO/AINSE Neutron School on Materials 20-25 July 2008" were the first external scientists using our neutron-beam instrumentation. 30 PhD students and postdocs, coming from Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and Taiwan, enjoyed their introduction to neutron scattering. "What a fantastic week", "thanks for the wonderful learning experience" were some of the comments.
The first day was not only to obtain an overview of the instrumentation and techniques, but also to become acquainted with each other. Our clip session really was the ice-breaker: each participant gave a clip of 2 minutes (sharp) presenting their project and advertising their poster; and the follow-on poster session provided an opportunity to discuss research in more detail.
The following days were a mixture of lectures and instrument sessions including data analysis. The powder diffractometers Wombat and Echidna were used for characterising the structural evolution of a new Li ion battery (discharge/charging). For the first time, Echidna’s sample robot was operated by users. Koala took a Laue pattern of a thermoelectric crystal, SrGaGe clathrates, and successfully analysed the collected data.
In reflectometry, the participants could experience the complementarity of two techniques: not only Platypus, our neutron reflectometer, but also our x-ray reflectometer were used for the study of Ni-Ti surfaces. As the three-axis spectrometer Taipan was not yet available for providing neutrons the participants were engaged in driving a liquid Helium cryostat to low temperatures, one of the standard sample-environment equipment used on this instrument. Furthermore, they used data from the neutron centre BENSC in Berlin to go through the analysing process.
Quokka also used data from another neutron centre, NIST in USA, analysing data from surfactant-coated colloidal silica particles using contrast matching. On the last day each instrument group presented and discussed their results, and we were all impressed with what was achieved.
Our social programme included a Sydney harbour cruise, and Elliot Gilbert gave an after-dinner lecture "food for thought" that illustrated not only how neutrons can play a role in food science, but also resulted in a lively discussion about food issues in our world. All in all, it was an enjoyable week for everybody: participants, lecturers, instrument scientists, administrators, and we are looking forward to organising our next school. It is gratifying to see young scientists engaging in this technique and we are looking forward to seeing them back as users.
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