WANT SKILLS IN NEUTRON SPECTROSCOPY? GO TO SUMMER SCHOOL!

In June 2001, the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) conducted its seventh annual summer school geared for students at the graduate level. Partially funded by the National Science Foundation, this year's course focused on the methods and applications of low-energy neutron spectroscopy, an experimental technique widely used to study the motion of atoms, molecules and magnetic moments in a variety of condensed matter systems (mostly solids). The emphasis was on scattering methods that employ long-wavelength neutrons to achieve high-energy resolution.

Students performed a variety of hands-on experiments using five of NCNR's state-of-the-art neutron scattering instruments: the disk-chopper time-of-flight spectrometer, the filter-analyzer spectrometer, the high-flux backscattering spectrometer, the neutron spin-echo spectrometer, and the spin-polarized inelastic neutron scattering spectrometer. Each device is unique in the United States. For each instrument, students learned the scientific motivation for the measurements, how the instrument works, how to mount samples, how to set up the instrument to collect data, and how to visualize and analyze the data.

NCNR's neutron source is operated as a national user facility open to guest researchers from universities, private industry and other government laboratories in the United States and abroad.