**Research Activity:** **Neutron** **and X-ray Scattering Facilities**

Division: Scientific User Facilities

Primary Contact: Roger W. Klaffky (roger.klaffky@science.doe.gov;
301-903-1873)

Altaf (Tof) Carim (<carim@science.doe.gov>; 301-903-4895)

Division Director: Pedro A. Montano

**Portfolio** **Description:**

This activity supports the operation of four synchrotron radiation light
sources and three neutron scattering facilities. These are: the Advanced
Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL); the
Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL); the
National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National
Laboratory (BNL); the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL)
at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC); the High Intensity
Flux Reactor (HFIR) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); the Intense
Pulsed Neutron Source (IPNS) at ANL; the Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron
Scattering Center (Lujan Center) at Los Alamos National Laboratory
(LANL), and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at ORNL, which is a
next-generation short-pulse spallation neutron source that will be
significantly more powerful than the best spallation neutron source now
in existenceISIS at the Rutherford Laboratory in England. Under
construction is the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at SLAC, which is
a free-electron laser that will provide laser-like radiation in the
x-ray region of the spectrum that is 10 orders of magnitude greater in
peak power and peak brightness than any existing coherent x-ray light
source. R&D is underway on the NSLS-II which will be built as a
replacement for NSLS-I to enable the study of material properties and
functions at the nanoscale level and to provide the world's finest x-ray
imaging capabilities.

**Unique Aspects:**

The synchrotron radiation light sources and the neutron scattering
facilities are the most advanced facilities of their kind in the world.
Together, they serve more than 7,000 users annually from academia,
Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories, and industry, a number
that has more than tripled in the past decade and that can more than
double again in the next decade as current facilities and those under
construction are fully instrumented. These light sources and neutron
scattering sources represent the largest collection of such facilities
operated by a single organization in the world. Conception, design,
construction, and operation of these facilities, which in current costs
are in the hundreds of millions to in excess of a billion dollars, are
among the core competencies of the BES program.

**Relationship to Other** **Programs:**

This activity has very strong interactions with all BES programmatic
research that use synchrotron and neutron sources. This includes
research in atomic physics, condensed matter and materials physics,
chemical dynamics, catalysis, geosciences, high-pressure science,
environmental sciences, engineering, biosciences, and much more.
Interaction also exists with other parts of the Office of Science,
notably the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and DOE,
notably the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and the Office of Environmental
Management. There are frequent contacts with other federal agencies in
order to better coordinate efforts in optimizing beamlines and
instruments. This activity participates in a number of Office of Science
and Technology Policy (OSTP) and National Science and Technology Council
(NSTC) interagency activities, e.g., OSTP Interagency Working Groups on
macromolecular crystallography at the synchrotron light sources and on
neutron sources and instrumentation. This activity is establishing more
frequent contacts with international user facilities such as ESRF,
SPring-8, ILL, ISIS, and others. The objective is to share experiences
and to make optimal use of present facilities.

**Significant Accomplishments:**

[The synchrotron radiation light sources]{.underline}. During the past
two decades, BES has been the nation's major supporter of synchrotron
x-ray light sources. BES support pioneered new storage ring lattices for
improved beam stability and brightness; developed wiggler and undulator
insertion devices that provide 10-12 orders of magnitude greater
brightness than the best conventional x-ray sources; and discovered or
developed such powerful experimental techniques as magnetic x-ray
scattering, microbeam diffraction, x-ray microscopy, photoelectron
spectroscopy and holography, inelastic x-ray scattering using nuclear
resonances, extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), and
near-edge absorption fine structure (NEXAFS). The BES light sources are
used by over 6,500 researchers annually from academia, government
laboratories, and industry for state-of-the art studies in materials
science, physical and chemical science, geoscience, environmental
science, bioscience, medical science, and pharmaceutical science. Recent
research at the light source facilities, supported by BES, by other
agencies, by industry, and by private sponsors includes: high-resolution
imaging of precision-fabricated thin films of copper, pointing the way
toward much denser magnetic data storage for computers; imaging of
contaminants in a polycrystalline silicon solar cell and their removal
by heat treatmenta step toward more efficient, less costly solar cells;
development of a high-pressure "diamond anvil cell" enabling the
creation of entirely new classes of materials such as biomaterials,
semiconductor phases, and dense polymers; the solution of the structure
of HIV (the AIDS virus) laying the groundwork for developing a vaccine;
and the determination of the structure of a key (immunoglobulin-E)
antibody receptor on immune system cells, opening the way to prevention
of allergic reactions.

[The neutron scattering sources]{.underline}***.*** Since the late
1940s, BES and its predecessors have been the major supporter of neutron
science in the United States\--from the earliest work of Clifford Shull
and E. O. Wollan at ORNL\'s Graphite Reactor in the 1940s to the Nobel
Prize in Physics shared by Clifford Shull and Bertram Brockhouse in 1994
for their work on neutron scattering. Based on its experience in nuclear
reactors and particle accelerators over the years, DOE developed
research reactors and spallation sources as high-flux neutron sources
for spectroscopy, scattering, and imaging and helped pioneer virtually
all the instruments and techniques used at these facilities. Researchers
at ANL, BNL, and ORNL led these pioneering advances. Most of the
important techniques used today have been developed at ANL, BNL, and
ORNL. Neutron scattering provides important information on the
positions, motions, and magnetic properties of solids. Neutrons possess
unique properties such as sensitivity to light elements, which has made
the technique invaluable to polymer, biological, and pharmaceutical
sciences. Neutrons also have magnetic moments and are thus uniquely
sensitive probes of magnetic interactions; neutron scattering studies
have led to higher strength magnets for more efficient electric
generators and motors and to better magnetic materials for magnetic
recording tapes and computer hard drives. Finally, the high penetrating
power of neutrons allows nondestructive property measurements deep
within a specimen and has been used to study automotive gears and brake
discs, and defects in airplane wings, engines, and turbine blades.

**Mission Relevance:**

These facilities were born from the most fundamental of needs, i.e., the
need to characterize materials at the atomic and molecular level. In
order to understand, predict, and ultimately control materials
properties, it is necessary to determine the atomic constituents of
materials, the positions of the atoms in materials, and how the
materials behave under the influence of external perturbations such as
temperature, pressure, chemical attack, and excitation by photons,
electrons, and other particles. A large number of experimental and
theoretical tools are used to achieve these ends. In the last two
decades, the experimental demands have motivated the development of
centralized facilities, like the ones in existence for synchrotron
radiation and neutron scattering. Such highly sophisticated and
expensive tools are by nature centralized and staffed with specialists
that provide to the user community expertise in order to optimize the
scientific use of the facility. The development, construction and
operation of these facilities are one of the most important missions and
core competencies of BES. The scientific accomplishments of these
facilities, as determined by triennial peer review, are reflected in the
large number of publications appearing annually in the most important
scientific journals, in the thousands.

**Scientific Challenges:**

[The synchrotron radiation light sources.]{.underline} First, completion
of SPEAR3 at SSRL requires upgrading the beamlines to make full use of
the new more powerful radiation source. Second, the facilities must be
operated optimally, which means optimizing instrument-hours of
operation, not just accelerator hours of operation, and making the
instruments widely available to the general user community. Third, the
promise of a coherent, short-wavelength x-ray source from the LCLS will
require completely new instrument and experiment concepts.

[The neutron scattering sources*.*]{.underline} First, the upgrades and
new instrumentation at HFIR must be completed in a timely way to
facilitate a robust user program. Second, the SNS must successfully
perform its commissioning and early operational phases.

**Funding Summary:**

Dollars in Thousands

  --------------------------------------- ---------- ---------- ----------
                                                                

                                          FY 2005    FY 2006    FY 2007
                                                                Request

  Advanced Light Source                   44,800     42,783     49,802

  Advanced Photon Source                  100,500    95,890     108,604

  National Synchrotron Light Source       36,750     36,196     40,763

  Stanford Synchrotron Radiation          32,388     25,475     35,836
  Laboratory                                                    

                                                                

  High Flux Isotope Reactor               46,900     43,330     51,598

  Intense Pulsed Neutron Source           16,800     15,500     18,531

  Manuel Lujan, Jr. Neutron Scattering    9,588      10,000     10,582
  Center                                                        

  Spallation Neutron Source               37,600     101,001    171,409

  REDC                                    4,500      \-\--      \-\--

  Neutron and X-ray Scattering            329,826    370,175    487,125
  Facilities, Total                                             

                                                                

                                                                

                                                                

                                                                

                                                                

                                                                

                                                                

                                                                

                                                                

                                                                
  --------------------------------------- ---------- ---------- ----------

**Projected** **Evolution:**

X-ray and neutron scattering will continue to play a central role in the
growth of BES programmatic science. The facilities will need continuous
growth in terms of beamline upgrades, new neutron scattering
instruments, and increase in availability of user time. The set of
instruments associated with these facilities provides unique scientific
and technical capabilities, rarely available in other parts of the
world. These facilities need to be kept in an optimal operational mode
in order to maintain and increase the tremendous scientific achievements
they have facilitated.

The instrumentation and scientific needs required by the future
operation of the SNS at ORNL will be identified and addressed. The SNS
will be for years to come the most important neutron spallation source
in the world. It is important to be prepared for full use and judicious
increases in the capabilities of SNS as recommended by all advisory
committees to DOE.

Finally, the LCLS will have properties vastly exceeding those of current
x-ray sources in three key areas: peak brightness, coherence, and
ultrashort pulses. The peak brightness of the LCLS is 10 orders of
magnitude greater than current synchrotrons; the light is coherent or
"laser like" enabling many new types of experiments; and the pulses are
short (230 femtoseconds with planned improvements that will further
reduce the pulse length) enabling studies of fast chemical and physical
processes. These characteristics open new realms of scientific
applications in the chemical, material, and biological sciences
including fundamental studies of the interaction of intense x-ray pulses
with simple atomic systems, structural studies on single nanoscale
particles and biomolecules, ultrafast dynamics in chemistry and
solid-state physics, studies of nanoscale structure and dynamics in
condensed matter, and use of the LCLS to create plasmas.