MRI: Acquisition of an X-ray diffractometer for materials structural characterization and research training

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award is to acquire a multifunctional X-ray diffractometer that will enhance research and education activities at Morgan State University. The requested instrument will be crucial in fulfilling the needs of advanced structural characterizations of various types of functional materials developed by scientists at Morgan State University and their partners at other collaborating institutions.

This instrumentation award will consolidate the existing research collaboration between Morgan’s scientists and their partners at neighboring institutions and allow the establishment of new alliances with other academic institutions and the industrial sector. In addition to benefiting the university and its collaborators, the acquisition of this instrumentation will positively impact other sectors.

The requested funds will enhance the research infrastructure of Morgan State University, which is an HBCU, and will offer research opportunities and training to minority students. It will boost junior faculty development at this institution. This will promote greater participation in materials science by African-Americans, who are underrepresented in this field of science.

This instrument will increase the competitiveness of minority students in the functional materials field at Morgan State. This will significantly enhance the opportunities for African-American graduates in the job market. TECHNICAL SUMMARY:

The multifunctional X-ray diffractometer to be acquired includes all typical scans offered by a four-circle diffractometer in addition to the capability of high temperature measurement. The PIs and the senior personnel of this grant are scientists from Morgan State University and Loyola University Maryland with research interests in materials such as ferromagnets, highly magnetostrictive alloys, nanomaterials, thermo-electrics, low-dimensional hetero-structures, porous materials, magneto-electrics, and optical materials.

The equipment will be used to fulfill the needs of advanced structural characterization of various types of materials under development by the PIs and their research partners, as well as to provide research training to students, postdocs and faculty. The multifunctional diffractometer will play a key role in investigating the structural properties of these materials by conducting the following measurements. (1) The four-circle diffractometer scans will enable the determination of the materials' structure, quantify strain in heterostructures, determine the crystallographic orientation and epitaxy, and map the distribution of crystallites in the investigated materials. (2) The high temperature capability of the requested instrument will be crucial in investigating phase transition and determining structural changes accompanying this transition in functional materials.

All these measurements together with other analyses offered by facilities at the PIs' and the senior personnel institutions will be crucial in conducting cutting-edge research and advancing scientific knowledge in the field of functional materials. This will enable engineering new advanced materials with superior performances, which will benefit the industrial sector.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.