Page 15 - ILL Annual Report 2019

THE USER community was at the heart of the project to build the ILL more than 50 years ago. While the success of the ILL still
depends on the user community today, in many cases this is a vibrant partnership of co-creation, as illustrated by the scientific highlights in this section of the AR.
Scientific output is the main deliverable of our activity. However, there are striking examples of the partnership up-stream in the scientific process.
Neutron imaging is a new activity at the ILL, developed in collaboration with the Université Grenoble-Alpes (UGA). A state-of-the-art instrument providing in situ X-ray imaging has been developed and has already attracted a new user community to the ILL. In view of this success, in 2020 the instrument will transition to a public ILL instrument and the partnership with UGA will be extended to include Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and their considerable expertise.
In situ X-ray techniques are also being developed
on the D22 SANS instrument in collaboration with
the University of Erlangen. Lab X-ray sources are comparable in flux to the neutron beams at the ILL, allowing a unique SAXS/SANS combination for probing sensitive systems and processes such as the cycling of electrochemical cells (batteries).
The same university was a key partner in developments on the backscattering spectrometer IN16B and in particular, the BATS time-of-flight option, which
extends the energy range of the spectrometer by about one order of magnitude. This option involves novel, variable-focusing guide sections, which have been funded through the University of Tubingen, and will fully optimise the performance of the BATS mode.
At the ILL, we are also investing in ancillary equipment to make the most efficient use of beamtime and support new science. The single-crystal, X-ray diffractometer is now operational and will be used in conjunction with neutron diffraction experiments. An electrochemical lab for battery research has been installed in level C of the reactor and features, for example, a dedicated glove box and a battery-cycling device funded by the University of Amiens.
Battery research, as mentioned in the Director’s forward,
is of growing importance. The ILL, along with the ESRF,
has joined a large consortium of academic and industry partners to submit a European project within the scope of the Battery 2030+ initiative. When funded, this project will give neutrons a clear and important role in battery research.
SCIENTIFIC HIGHLIGHTS
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An already funded European project, InnovaXN (www.innovaxn.eu), involving the ILL and the ESRF, is also industry-oriented and, in a number of cases, battery-oriented. InnovaXN is an MSCA COFUND programme supporting 40 PhD positions on projects that must have an industry partner, offering at least three months of training for each PhD project. Twenty projects have been selected from 60 expressions of interest and the recruitment of students is now underway. There will be a second call for projects in 2020.
An important event in 2019 was the ‘Artificial Intelligence workshop’ in Grenoble, organised with the ESRF and the STFC. The rapid development in these data techniques
led us to bring together experts in the field and instrument scientists to explore how the techniques could be used both to optimise instrument configuration and use and to guide less experienced users towards the most appropriate solutions in data analysis. This is timely, given that about 60 % of ILL users over any five-year period are new users.
The user community needs a continuous supply of new users. To this end, a number of outreach events have been organised in the context of the FILL2030 project (www.fill2030.eu – see p.110) e.g. in Ireland, Romania and Portugal in 2019. In 2020, we are looking forward to events in Israel, with ESS, and in Norway.
Finally, the ESS–ILL user meeting in Grenoble in 2018 with its 500+ participants was a clear measure of our vibrant community and partnership. In September 2020, the event will be repeated in Lund, led by the ESS— everyone is welcome!
Mark R. Johnson
Associate Director,
Head of Science Division
www.ill.eu