Greg Diakun

With MPW6.2 now coming on-line the decision has been taken, as part of the SRS station plan, to close 8.2 which had provided high quality combined SAXS/WAXS for many years. We are confident that MPW6.2’s potent combination of variable wavelength, additional techniques and RAPID SAXS/WAXS detectors will continue and expand on this success story. In addition, the INEL detector has been successfully installed on station 16.1 for service continuity.

March 2003 saw the successful temporary transfer of the RAPID 2-D detector system from station 16.1 to the ESRF. The detector, currently the world’s fastest photon-counting detector, has been installed on ID2 in order to demonstrate its capabilities at a third generation synchrotron source. In the coming months several groups, principally in the area of muscle research, will use the detector to probe dynamic systems in the microsecond time regime.

Materials and Engineering College are pleased to welcome Dr Chris Martin to the team. He will be joint station scientist for MPW6.2 and will be responsible for developing the SAXS/WAXS facilities for materials processing. Chris has many years of experience in the polymer field and was part of Prof W Fuller's group at Keele University. He takes over from Dr Nick Terrill who has moved on to be the Principal Beamline Scientist at Diamond responsible for design and build of the Beamline 11. We all wish Nick all the best for the future and thank him for his excellent work for the NCD group and SRD at Daresbury

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Bob Cernik, Materials and Engineering College Science Chair

The newly formed Materials and Engineering College has responsibility for stations MPW6.2, 2.3, 7.6, 16.1, 16.2, 16.3 and 16.4. Essentially the whole of the old NCD group plus part of the old XRD team. An essential part of the college's work is of course to support our users in their research programmes on these stations. However that is not the major reason why the old facility groups have been re-organised. We want to maximise the research opportunities on the SRS until 2008 when the majority of research council funded work will transfer on DIAMOND. We have a unique opportunity to carry out research in material science and engineering, to develop new facilities and new research directions over the next six years. The is no specific funding to achieve this goal so some hard decisions have had to be made regarding the number of stations that can be operated on the SRS. This portfolio was considered from the users point of view by minimising the effect of station closure on existing user programmes. The research programme was also considered by identifying those programmes that are likely to keep the SRS at the cutting edge of international research or those that provide essential analytical research services. In most cases the two approaches had the same outcome in that the optimal research solution for the future operation of the SRS is one where the existing resources are concentrated on just the essential stations.

For Materials and engineering there are some obvious examples that combine leading facilities with exciting research opportunities. MPW6.2 was funded by EPSRC and is just being commissioned. It has a pair of detectors for SAXS and WAXS that are state of the art. The facility will allow research in polymer and ceramic processing combining real time sample thermodynamics with detailed structural information. There is already a thriving user community and this station is likely to remain state-of-the-art until 2008. Developments of new cells, methods of simulating real synthesis conditions and the measurement of real samples on this station will be one of the college's highest priorities.

Station 16.3 and 16.4 have been used for a number of pioneering stress-stain measurements on large composite fabricated components. This non-destructive approach complemented by neutron diffraction has applications in aviation, automotive and new materials industries. The monochromatic and white beam approaches are both very promising with new developments in tomographic imaging combined with chemical analysis. This area will also be a high priority for the new college. The engineering aspects of monochromator and new focusing techniques will also be a priority. There is a great deal of analytical capability in the instrument suite for example reflectivity, thin film diffraction, topography, SAXS, high Q resolution scattering, high pressure facilities and kinetic analysis of materials. These techniques will continue until 2008.

An exciting new possibility is the formation of collaborative research teams for the development of specific research goals. For example station 16.2 is ideally suited to the analysis of buried interfaces and liquid surfaces. There are many aspects of membrane engineering as yet unexplored. The new college will actively pursue new collaborations with our users in a very flexible way in order to maximise the quality of our research.

In summary we have a real opportunity to develop the facility and research programmes both with our talented in house staff and with our user community. These programmes will vary in make up from the entirely in-house programme to the user driven CRG. I am very keen to hear the views of users or DL staff where they see new research possibilities.