WIREDGOV

Our understanding of advanced materials and how they perform under different conditions will be enhanced thanks to a new research collaboration announced today between the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

NPL have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with STFC to work with the Oxfordshire based ISIS facility, the UK’s pulsed neutron and muon source, to both increase collaboration between the two organisations and jointly develop innovative capabilities to enhance our understanding of advanced materials, particularly multi-ferroics, and how they perform under different conditions. Long term the research findings from the collaboration should be of real benefit to UK industry in the fields of micro-electronics with the aim of making computers (including mobile devices) smaller and faster while using less power.

Our desire for smaller, more powerful computing devices and the need to reduce power consumption are pushing current materials to the limit. Multiferroics are a promising group of materials for taking us to the next generation of devices such as these. Before these materials can be used we need to understand their properties at the atomic scale. This collaboration will bring us closer to that goal.

Professor Sean Langridge, ISIS Division Head at STFC, said, “I’m delighted that the signing of this agreement will strengthen the relationship between STFC and NPL. Not only will this advance our atomic scale knowledge of technologically relevant materials, it will capitalise on the expertise of both ISIS and NPL scientists and help us build new capabilities for our user community.”

Dr Brian Bowsher, NPL’s Managing Director welcomed this agreement. He said “ISIS is recognised as the leading short pulse spallation facility in the world and will be critical for the future development of neutron science in Europe over the next two decades. NPL has also been looking at the metrology requirements over this timescale in its “Metrology for the 2020s” strategy. We see exciting opportunities to work with ISIS, notably in materials science – particularly for electronic and functional materials. This collaboration is a great example of two internationally-leading government laboratories working together for maximum benefit: this collaboration should enhance the outputs of our National Measurement System programmes and generate greater impact for both STFC and NPL.”

Initially NPL and ISIS scientists plan to perform simultaneous, real time measurements of high resolution neutron diffraction patterns and electric polarisation on relevant technological materials. There is considerable interest in multiferroic materials for use in computing and communications applications where an understanding of the magnetic structure is important and where neutron diffraction can provide significant insights. It is hoped that combining NPL and STFC ISIS expertise in developing a new measurement technique will bring new understanding to the couplings at play in these important materials and prove valuable for the development of new devices including mobile computers, sensors, actuators and memory devices.

Professor Markys Cain, Science Area Leader for Functional Materials at NPL, says ‘I have collaborated with scientists at ISIS for over a decade and am very excited about the opportunity that this MOU brings in creating new links between materials scientists and metrologists at NPL and the unique facilities and scientific excellence at STFC ISIS. In our first collaboration NPL’s Functional Materials team are working with the beamline scientists at ISIS on the WISH instrument, bringing new in situ dielectric polarisation measurements of ferroelectrics and multiferroics to be coupled to the neutron diffraction capabilities of this world class beamline.’

Contacts

Corinne Mosese, Press Officer, STFC
Tel: 01793 442 870

Images

Photographs of ISIS and NPL are available upon request.

Notes to editors

ISIS is a world-leading centre for research in the physical and life sciences at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford in the United Kingdom. Our suite of neutron and muon instruments gives unique insights into the properties of materials on the atomic scale. We support a national and international community of more than 3000 scientists for research into subjects ranging from clean energy and the environment, pharmaceuticals and health care, through to nanotechnology and materials engineering, catalysis and polymers, and on to fundamental studies of materials.

We use the technique of neutron scattering. Neutrons tell us where atoms are and how they are moving. By studying how materials work at the atomic level, we can better understand their every-day properties – and so make new materials tailor-made for particular uses. ISIS also produces muons for use in a similar way, providing additional information on how materials work at the atomic scale.

ISIS Wish instrument.

NPL is the UK's National Measurement Institute, and is a world-leading centre of excellence in developing and applying the most accurate measurement standards, science and technology available. For more than a century NPL has developed and maintained the nation's primary measurement standards. These standards underpin the National Measurement System infrastructure of traceability throughout the UK and the world that ensures accuracy and consistency of measurement.