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CALL FOR PROPOSALS
AUGUST 2011

Proceed to the following links for details on proposal submission, proposal review, and site access.

The NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) offers neutron scattering and chemical analysis instruments to all qualified users.

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The next deadline for receipt of NEW and CONTINUATION proposals is Tuesday, October 4, 2011.

Note that the deadline for continuation proposals is the same as for new proposals. Continuation proposals must be accompanied by an experimental report, and are critically reviewed by the Beam Time Allocation Committee (BTAC). A continuation proposal should be submitted only to complete work clearly laid out in the original proposal. Extensions of prior work to new systems or in new directions should be requested through a new proposal. If a proposal submitted as a continuation is considered not to qualify as such, it may be reclassified as a new proposal and sent out for external peer review, or declined by the BTAC.

Proposals that are favorably reviewed by external referees and recommended by the Beam Time Allocation Committee will be scheduled for experiments from March 2012 through September 2012.

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For this proposal round:

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION FORM
You must have an account on the new NCNR Information Management System (NCNR-IMS) to submit a proposal. Go to the login link on the upper left hand side of our home page. Login if you have an account, or create an account if you do not. Your email address is your user ID. It may be that you may already have an account of which you are unaware. You will know this if you try to create an account referring to an existing account with the same email address. We can send you your password in the latter case, or if you have forgotten your password. PLEASE do not create duplicate or mutiple accounts.

NEW! UPLOAD A PDF document of the description of your experiment on our proposal form.
The new feature allows you conveniently to include figures and equations. The uploaded material may be no larger than 600 kb in file size, nor longer than 4 letter-size pages in length. The font size must be 12 point or larger.

NEW! REFLECTOMETER TIME TEMPORARILY REDUCED DURING NCNR EXPANSION PROJECT
The AND/R refelectometer has been decommissioned, and is being replaced by an instrument called MAGIK that will provide new information about in-plane structures in thin films. However, MAGIK will not become operational until the summer of 2012, so we are not accepting proposals for it in the current round. The vertical sample, polarized beam reflectometer (PBR) previously located on guide NG-1 is being relocated to the new guide NG-D, and time reserved on it for users will be temporarily reduced, from 67% to 25%, until the next proposal round. Time will be available as usual on the NG-7 horizontal sample reflectometer.

NEW! MULTI-ANGLE CRYSTAL SPECTROMETER (MACS) NOT AVAILABLE TO USERS THIS ROUND
MACS is being relocated from neutron guide NG-0 to beam tube BT9, where it will have its own dedicated cold source. The recommissioning will be complete in the fall of 2012, and MACS will be unavailable to users until then. MACS is a cold neutron instrument featuring 20 individual detection channels, each with its own focusing graphite analyzer. It provides superior data rates for many situations, including magnetic scattering from low-dimensional systems.

MAIL-IN SAMPLES FOR POWDER DIFFRACTION
We will accept proposals for experiments on the BT1 powder diffractometer on "mail-in" samples. That is, for approved proposals, samples may be mailed to NCNR staff, who will execute the data collection. Up to 25% of BT1 instrument time may be allocated to such proposals.

NEUTRON IMAGING STATION
We are accepting proposals for the Neutron Imaging Facility in the confinement buiding.

TIPS ON PROPOSAL WRITING
The BTAC recommends that applicants read the tips listed on the proposal instructions page, with new specific suggestions from the SANS subcommitee of the BTAC.

EQUATIONS AND SPECIAL CHARACTERS -- NOTE CHANGE
In order to include special characters and equations, you must use the option of uploading the description of experiment as a pdf file. NOTE that the text box option no longer supports special characters, since no version of the proposal that reviewers will see is formatted in html.

QUICK ACCESS PROPOSALS
If a user feels that beam time is required very soon to carry out important measurements that cannot be delayed, a proposal may be submitted requesting expedited access. The regular Web proposal form should be used, and NCNR personnel must be notified. The proposal will be reviewed by the BTAC, and held to a substantially higher standard than regular proposals.

Detailed Instructions

PROPOSAL LENGTH LIMIT
If entered as text, the experiment description may not be longer than 8000 characters (including spaces), or approximately three typed pages. Up to 3 figures may be separately uploaded in this case. If the experiment description is uploaded as a pdf file, it should include any figures and may be no longer than 4 letter-size pages, nor may it be any larger than 600 kb in file size.

 
In the current call for proposals, the following instruments are offered to applicants.
  • High Resolution Powder Diffractometer
  • Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) - 30 m (NG3)
  • Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) - 30 m (NG7)
  • Ultra-Small Angle Neutron Scattering (USANS) instrument
  • Reflectometer - horizontal geometry
  • Reflectometer - vertical geometry
  • Cold Neutron Triple-Axis with Polarized Beam Option (SPINS)
  • Thermal Neutron Triple-Axis with Polarized Beam Option (BT7)
  • Backscattering Spectrometer
  • Disk-Chopper Spectrometer
  • Neutron Spin-Echo Spectrometer
  • Neutron Imaging Facility

    • To apply for beam time, please use the WEB PAGE PROPOSAL FORM. This is our required format, since it allows efficient processing of your proposal.

    If you would like more detailed information about the NCNR instruments than is given on these pages, please contact the appropriate instrument scientist. For more general information about the NCNR, call W. A. Kamitakahara at (301) 975-6878, or inquire by email to wkamitakahara@nist.gov, or FAX a message to (301) 921-9847.



    Last modified 26-September-2011