Equipment: MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a multipurpose X-ray diffractometer for materials research

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award is for a multipurpose X-ray diffractometer that meets the growing need for X-ray scattering and diffraction techniques at Brigham Young University (BYU) and the surrounding universities. It provides several capabilities that are novel and unique in the region. Using the new instrument, researchers across chemistry, physics, geology, and engineering can study the atomic structure of advanced materials at new depths, leading to more lightweight vehicles, improved magnetic memory systems, new imaging methods, and more efficient synthesis of medical and industrial chemicals.

The system is also a central component of student experiential learning at BYU, where half of student researchers using the facilities are undergraduates. Because BYU consistently ranks in the top universities whose undergraduates go on to receive doctoral degrees, the instrument is significantly impacting the next generation of scientists. The instrument is also a vital research tool for half of the women faculty in chemistry and physics at BYU and is used in outreach efforts such as summer camps designed to increase the participation of female and Hispanic students in science in Utah.

The instrument features high resolution powder diffraction, grazing incidence diffraction, X-ray reflectivity, texture analysis, microdiffraction, and capillary diffraction. Nearly all are new capabilities for academic institutions in Utah. These features are essential in a wide range of research projects aimed at understanding and optimizing current materials, designing new materials, and improving synthetic methods.

A few specific examples include: (a) studying the microstructure in strained metals to facilitate lightweighting, (b) understanding the relationships between magnetic, electronic, and structural properties of emerging quantum materials (c) designing, optimizing, and orienting new materials that can generate terahertz frequencies of light for use in imaging, chemical monitoring, and communication, and (d) creating new methods of synthesizing bimetallic thin films for use in catalysis.

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.