Neutron Scattering – Gordon Research Conference

June 25 – 30, 2023

Chairs
Victoria Garcia Sakai and Collin L. Broholm
Vice Chairs
Pascale Deen and Dongfeng Chen

Four Points Sheraton / Holiday Inn Express

1050 Schooner Drive

Ventura, CA, United States

Application Information

Applications for this meeting must be submitted by May 28, 2023. Please apply early, as some meetings become oversubscribed (full) before this deadline. If the meeting is oversubscribed, it will be stated here. Note: Applications for oversubscribed meetings will only be considered by the conference chair if more seats become available due to cancellations.

Conference Description

The Neutron Scattering GRC is a premier, international scientific conference focused on advancing the frontiers of science through the presentation of cutting-edge and unpublished research, prioritizing time for discussion after each talk and fostering informal interactions among scientists of all career stages. The conference program includes a diverse range of speakers and discussion leaders from institutions and organizations worldwide, concentrating on the latest developments in the field. The conference is five days long and held in a remote location to increase the sense of camaraderie and create scientific communities, with lasting collaborations and friendships. In addition to premier talks, the conference has designated time for poster sessions from individuals of all career stages, and afternoon free time and communal meals allow for informal networking opportunities with leaders in the field.

Neutron scattering has been used as a material’s probe since the first neutron experiments in the 1930’s. It is a versatile technique, with unique characteristics, that helps to ‘see into materials in a special way’. It is used to study materials in a wide range of areas and with a variety of applications, from biomaterials for medicine and agriculture, to energy materials for storage and tackling climate change, to structural materials under real-life conditions, to quantum materials for energy, information technology, and sensing applications. As such, neutron scattering methods are contributing to making our society more sustainable, to protecting the planet and to improving the lives of everyone everywhere, now and in the years to come. This GRC will showcase the role of neutron scattering in improving well-being and progressing society, specifically in helping tackle some of our current societal challenges. It aims at bringing together world leading scientists, neutron scattering experts, and especially young researchers who are at the forefront of science, to jointly discuss the needs of the scientific community as well as how and what advances in source and instrumentation, operational approaches and complementary infrastructure, would be best in these challenging endeavors.

Link:https://www.grc.org/neutron-scattering-conference/2023/

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2020 TWNSS Annual Meeting

Registration has already begun, and the number of places is limited. Please register quickly.

This conference also provides a poster presentation session, which is an excellent opportunity to publish your research related to neutron experiments.

Join now: Link

Please use the postal transfer to the account of the Taiwan Neutron Science Society and contact twnss2020@gmail.com after the registration is completed.

Please use the format of [Register Name]-[Affiliation]-[Name of Transferee/Remittance Account 5 Codes]-[Dash Transfer Date] to facilitate reconciliation. Thank you.

Please send a letter to make the notice if more than one person merges the remittance(Please fill in the name of each person in [Register Name]).

為配合中央流行疫情指揮中心指示 : 提醒與會人員在出入無法保持社交距離、或會密切接觸不特定對象之人潮擁擠或密閉空間(如 : 大眾運輸、接駁車輛、教育學習場所、展演競賽場所及大型活動)時,請佩戴口罩。

https://sites.google.com/view/twnss2020

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First Nature Paper from SIKA

Schematic diagram of the refrigeration cycle based on barocaloric effects.

SIKA user, Prof. Bing Li (Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and his multinational collaborators published their study in Nature on March 28. They report on an unusual phase transition in a plastic crystal. The colossal barocaloric effects, reported here in a class of highly disordered solid, could be a solution to the next-generation of solid-state refrigeration technologies. Using neutron scattering instruments at J-PARC (Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex) and ANSTO (Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation), the team monitored the molecular dynamics of this material. Their experimental results and computer simulations are consistent. At the early stage of this research, SIKA instrument scientist, Dr. Shin-ichiro Yano (NSRRC) identified an anomaly in the incoherent elastic scattering intensity at the structural phase transition and confirmed hydrogen bonds as a key role in this effect after conducting neutron scattering experiments on SIKA.

SIKA, a cold neutron triple-axis spectrometer, is designed for studies in low-energy excitations; it is an effective tool to understand novel ground states of materials, such as superconductors, other strongly correlated systems, low dimensional magnets, etc. It is the Taiwan-Australian neutron instrument, built at ANSTO, based on the “Agreement on Neutron Beam Applications Research” signed between the National Science Council (NSC, Taiwan) and Australia in 2005. In 2013 NSRRC was commissioned by the NSC (later reorganized to Ministry of Science and Technology, MOST) to operate SIKA.

Nature volume 567, pages 506–510 (2019)

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First research paper from the Sika

Prof W.F. Pong, from Tamkang University in Taiwan, along with collaborators from ANSTO and Osaka University in Japan, published the first research paper from the cold neutron, triple axis spectrometer, Sika.  

Just published in the Physical Review B, Prof. Pong used the neutron Spectrometer at OPAL to investigate the spatial spin-spin correlations and the spin relaxation processes in a single crystal of (Ni0.4Mn0.6)TiO3

The parent compounds of this solid solution are antiferromagnetic with orthogonal easy axes of magnetisation.  When mixed at this 40/60 ratio the long range magnetic order is supressed and a glassy magnetic groundstate is formed, possibly hosting magnetic texture, such as a skyrmion with possible technological applications for spintronics. 

Using Sika, the team worked on the dimensionality of the spin-spin correlations and the universality class of the spin system.  It was found that the spatial correlations are over three times greater in the plane than out, but the relaxation processes in the two directions were within experimental error of each other.

The full reference is “Correlations and dynamics of spins in an XY-like spin-glass (Ni0.4Mn0.6)TiOsingle crystal system”, R. S. Solanki, S. -H. Hsieh, C. H. Du, G. Deng, C. W. Wang, J. S. Gardner, H. Tonomoto, T. Kimura and W. F. Pong

Phys. Rev. B 95, 024425 (2017)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.95.024425

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Sika was awarded the operational licence

On Friday the 12th of June, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency has given approval to commence user and commercial operations on SIKA cold neutron triple axis spectrometer.

User experiments approved following the Program Advisory Committee meeting in May 2015 can now be scheduled.

This demonstrated our commitment to service for Taiwan neutron research.

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