Call for Proposals: Materials Science at LANSCE 2023 Run Cycle
Proposal Submission Deadline: Thursday, May 11, 2023, 5:00 pm (MDT)The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) is issuing a Call for Proposals for Materials
Science at the Lujan Center Facility for the upcoming run cycle anticipated July 1 – December
21, 2023.
The Lujan Center beam production operations are fully covered by NNSA programmaticsponsors. Approximately 20% of the beam time at Lujan Center is available for compellingscientific proposals from institutions with no programmatic sponsor. As LANSCE is a NSUF(Nuclear Science User Facilities) partner facility, beam time may be requested for DOE/NErelated work that will be contingent on a successful NSUF funding proposal as an alternate pathto the normal proposal process. Proposals that involve proprietary work or SPPs (StrategicPartnership Projects) will be considered using a full cost recovery model. The deadline for
proposal submission is 5 p.m. (MDT) Thursday, May 11th, 2023. Scheduling of awarded
proposals will be between July 1 (tentative), 2023 and December 21, 2023, where the start ofthe run cycle is contingent on the start up of the LANSCE accelerator and subsequent beam
delivery to the 1L Target at the Lujan Center. Proposals for Nuclear Science research (on FlightPaths 12 and 14) are covered in the Nuclear Science Proposal call.
Lujan Center capabilities available for this call are: SMARTS and HIPPO diffractometers, FlightPath 5 for neutron radiography, as well as the Asterix neutron reflectometer and phase contrast
imaging capability. More information about these capabilities can be found athttps://lansce.lanl.gov/facilities/lujan/index.php.
For any questions, contact Don Brown (dbrown@lanl.gov or 505-667-7904) or the instrument
scientist listed below.
Asterix: Neutron reflectometry and phase contrast imaging: Don Brown, dbrown@lanl.gov, 505-6674037
ERNI (Flight Path 5): Neutron imaging/tomography: Alex Long, alexlong@lanl.gov, 505-667-3600
HIPPO: Neutron time-of-flight powder diffractometer: Sven Vogel, sven@lanl.gov, 505-667-7016
SMARTS: Materials research of deformation under stress and temperature, Bjorn Clausen,
clausen@lanl.gov, 505-667-2944

Lujan Center areas of research include the following:• Microstructural evolution, including texture, phase composition, and dislocations, atambient and non-ambient conditions (load, temperature, pressure etc.)• Residual and induced stress, phase transformations• In-situ phase transformations under P, T, H-1-LA-UR-22-21592

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Surface and interfacial structure of materials
Oxidation and hydriding phenomena at interfaces
Neutron radiography and tomography, including energy-resolved neutron tomography
for isotope mapping and phase contrast imaging
All materials relevant to NNSA and DOE/NE work can be handled at the Lujan Center,
including but not limited to actinides (uranium, Pu etc.), high explosives, and radioactive
materials

Proposal Submission and Selection
Proposal Submission and Required Documents
All proposals must be submitted using the LANSCE Experiment Management System (LEMS):
https://lems.lanl.gov/login and include a proposal document. Please note that the proposal
web-based form has not changed from last year. Please read it carefully and complete allsections.
The system requires users to create an account, complete the web-based form and upload theproposal document. The proposal document should be formatted with fonts no smaller than 12
pt with a maximum of 5 text pages plus figures and appendices, and should contain thefollowing technical information:
1. Research goals including background needed to place your proposal in the proper
context, and the significance of the proposed work.
2. Experimental details sufficient for the PAC to determine the feasibility of yourexperiment: what you want to measure, estimates of signal and background including
any assumptions, and a justification for time request including any contingencies.
3. If you require special help in the form of specialized equipment (including user
equipment shipped to LANL for the experiment), personnel expertise, or facility
operations, discuss these needs.
Users should expect a conversation regarding the disposition of samples brought into thefacility as part of the proposed experiment.
Please, contact the User Program Office, lansce-user-office@lanl.gov or 505-667-6797 forassistance with the proposal process or the instrument scientist for technical questions.
Note: The Department of Energy (DOE) requires users of any LANSCE Facility to have a User
Agreement (UA) in place between Los Alamos National Laboratory and the user’s homeinstitution before the experiment can be scheduled. The description and list of existing UA canbe found at https://lansce.lanl.gov/users/become-a-user/user-agreements.php. If yourinstitution does not have a valid UA in place, please contact the User Office at lansce-useroffice@lanl.gov to start the process as early as possible.
Note: The LANSCE cost model can now be found at https://lansce.lanl.gov/users/become-auser/user-agreements.php where experiments are separated into three categories. If you have-2-LA-UR-22-21592

questions regarding which category your experiment would be, please contact Don Brown(dbrown@lanl.gov, 505-667-7904).
Important:• All visiting US citizen users need to register the visit three weeks before the scheduledexperiment. Non-US citizens must register at least 60 days before their visit.
• DOE requires that all personnel associated with each experiment (including citizenship)
are listed in the proposal.
• DOE requires additional information to grant non-US citizens access to Los Alamos
National Laboratory (LANL). Foreign national visitors must have an approved visit
request, present a valid passport and documentation of US legal status and work
authorizations. (https://www.lanl.gov/community/visitors/badging/index.php)

Program Advisory Committee Review
Proposals will be sent for an initial quality screening. Proposals that are complete will then besent to their Instrument Scientist (IS) for a feasibility review. Those that are incomplete, or that
did not use the proposal template, will not be reviewed and will not be recommended for beamtime.
Proposals and their accompanying feasibility reviews will be sent to the Materials Program
Advisory Committee (MPAC). The PAC is an advisory committee to the LANSCE User Facility
Director (LUFD) that is composed of technical experts in the relevant field. It judges theproposals based upon the criteria stated below.
Submitted proposals will be ranked on the following criteria, listed from most to least
important:
1. The quality of the science or measurement being proposed. What problem is being
addressed? Why are these experiments being proposed?
2. The impact of the science or measurement being proposed, to programs, milestones,
graduate student work, postdoctoral research, staff development, or other priorities.
How will the data be used? (Note that as an NNSA-sponsored facility, NNSA priorities
will be weighted more heavily, but proposals from other sponsors are welcome.)
3. The feasibility and readiness of the proposed experiments. Are samples andcomponents ready? Have prior experiments or measurements been performed,analyzed, and reported? Where appropriate, are pre-shot calculations complete?
4. The need for LANSCE resources. How appropriate are the LANSCE diagnostics? Why
can’t these experiments be done somewhere else? How much beam time, staff time,etc. will be required to execute these experiments?
The more detailed information, including results from previous experiments or tests, that canbe provided, the stronger the proposal will be.

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The MPAC will provide a preliminary ranking of proposals along with recommendations forwhich proposals should not be awarded beam time. The LUFD and representatives from theprograms sponsoring experiments at LANSCE will then finalize the rankings. MPAC feedback will
be provided for all proposals in a timely manner, no later than the beginning of the LANSCE runcycle.

Proposal SchedulingOnce the LANSCE block schedule for a run cycle is finalized, the Instrument Scientist for eachflight path will combine the block schedule with the finalized rankings in order to develop an
experimental schedule for each area or beam line. These schedules will be communicated toexperiment proposers as soon as possible so that arrangements for the shipment of parts, user
travel, etc. can be made. To maximize the efficiency of operations, feasibility, readiness, andresource usage may be weighted more highly during proposal scheduling than they were during
proposal review.
Final scheduling of ranked proposals depends upon the feasibility of fielding the experiment
within the constraints of the LANSCE operating schedule. Because of the complexity of theLANSCE accelerator and experimental system, the operating schedule typically changes overthe course of the run cycle, and thus particular experimental dates cannot be guaranteed.
In the event that proposals which were recommended for beam time are not executed in agiven run cycle, those proposals must be resubmitted for a later run cycle. The PAC will notethe previous recommendation and accordingly weight them more highly.

Classified Proposals Submission
If you plan to submit a classified proposal, please contact Don Brown (dbrown@lanl.gov) as
early as possible to discuss how to do so.

Proprietary Proposals
Proprietary users planning full cost recovery experiments must also submit a proposal. Thoughthese proposals are not reviewed by the MPAC. For questions regarding full cost recovery
experiments and administrative questions regarding contracts for these experiments, pleasecontact Valerie Salazar (vsalazar@lanl.gov, 505-667-6797).

Technical Questions
It is strongly encouraged that users work with the scattering science team when developing
their proposals. For technical questions regarding details involved in fielding experiments,
please contact Don Brown (dbrown@lanl.gov) or the instrument scientists listed in this call.
Other questions may be directed to the LANSCE User Office (lansce-user-office@lanl.gov).
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We look forward to your submissions,
Materials Science User Program-5-LA-UR-22-21592