May 28, 2009
Workshop Breaks New Ground, Introduces Synchrotron Techniques to Glass Community in 14 Countries
The structure of glass is much more complex than corresponding crystalline solids, which makes its determination especially difficult. It is well known that to characterize glass structure, routine laboratory methods are inadequate, and one must instead use advanced synchrotron-based techniques. Accordingly, the Workshop on Applications of Synchrotron Techniques in Glass Research was organized at Brookhaven National Laboratory on April 6-7, 2009, by the National Science Foundation’s International Materials Institute for New Functionality in Glass (IMI-NFG) and the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). To facilitate the participation of a broader group of interested researchers, the workshop lectures were broadcast live over the Internet such that participants from across the globe could join in the discussion and ask questions in real time.
As a result of this “distributed learning environment,” lectures were either attended in the conference room at Brookhaven, or remotely on the web by researchers from 14 countries, with registrants from as far as Australia, India and Egypt. For additional access, the lectures were recoded for future use via the Internet (see below).
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The workshop was particularly timely, coinciding with the development of a new state-of-the-art synchrotron, NSLS-II, by the Department of Energy. The new facility, which is in the design stage, will produce x-rays up to 10,000 times brighter than those produced at the NSLS today, and thus provide unprecedented opportunity for materials research at the nanometer scale. A special session was held to discuss how to facilitate use of the existing synchrotron facilities by the glass research community in preparation for NSLS-II. The session helped nucleate a coalition of university and industrial researchers, who agreed to a follow-up meeting to further identify specific experimental requirements and ways of enhancing more active synchrotron participation by the next generation of glass scientists.
To introduce various synchrotron techniques, eight experts presented tutorial-type lectures at the level of a first-year graduate student. They highlighted the capabilities as well as limitations of a given technique, thus helping the potential user choose the most appropriate method for his or her research. To further extend the usefulness of the workshop, abstracts and slides of the presentations are posted at www.lehigh.edu/imi/workshops/09brookhaven8a.html. In the near future, the lectures will be available for viewing at IMI-NFG’s video library site: www.lehigh.edu/imi/library.html.
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The lecture topics covered at the workshop and corresponding speakers are listed below:
- “Local Atomic and Electronic Structure: X-ray Absorption Fine Structure and Other Inner Shell Spectroscopies,” Bruce Ravel, National Institute of Standards & Technology
- “Pump-Probe EXAFS or Probing Structural and Electronic Excitations with X-rays,” Klaus Attenkofer, Argonne National Laboratory
- “Recent Developments in Atomic Pair Distribution Function Analysis Applied to Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Materials,” Simon Billinge, BNL/Columbia University
- “Anomalous X-Ray Scattering: Resonant Elastic X-ray Scattering,” Takeshi Egami, University of Tennessee
- “X-ray Absorption at the Near-edge and Its Applications,” Faisal Alamgir, Georgia Institute of Technology
- “Hard X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Research at NIST Beamline X24A,” Joseph Woicik, National Institute of Standards & Technology
- “High Energy X-ray Glass Diffraction at High Pressure and Temperature,” Chris Benmore, Argonne National Laboratory
- “EXAFS-SAXS-WAXS,” Neville Greaves, Aberystwyth University, UK
In addition to the lectures, the workshop provided opportunity for participants to present their past work on synchrotron in a semi-formal poster session. A few participants presented results of other types of experiments to discuss how synchrotron techniques may benefit their future research. At the conclusion, the participants visited the NSLS and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials. The tour of several beamlines was particularly appreciated by the visitors, as it gave them a realistic sense of what it takes to conduct experiments at a synchrotron.
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A survey conducted after the workshop showed that the event was highly successful and accomplished its goals. For example, 90 percent of the respondents felt that this workshop was very useful. Among the distant participants, 83 percent found their participation via webcast a positive experience, although the lower resolution of the webcast material occasionally resulted in issues with diminished visual quality.
A total of 42 participants from academia as well as glass companies attended the workshop in person. On the other hand, 38 individuals registered in advance for the live Internet broadcast, and there were 73 separate logons during the event. The actual number of distant participants is difficult to determine as there might have been multiple logons by the same person and/or several persons may have participated from the same connection in a classroom setting.
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The workshop was organized by H. Jain (Lehigh University) and C. Pantano (Penn State) on behalf of IMI-NFG and R. Pindak (Brookhaven Lab) on behalf of NSLS. They were advised by an organizing committee consisting of F. Alamgir (Georgia Tech), S. Billinge (Columbia University), G. Chen (Ohio University), A. Ganjoo (PPG Industries), G.N. Greaves (U. Aberystwyth, UK), and S. Sen (UC Davis).
Contact:
Himanshu Jain (Lehigh University)
Carlo Pantano (Penn State)
Ron Pindak (Brookhaven Lab)