W0450

IPNS is a spallation neutron source that has operated as a national user facility since commissioning in 1981, longer than any other Department of Energy (DOE) neutron or synchrotron source. To address the long-standing concern among U.S. neutron sources about inadequate outreach beyond the traditional condensed matter physics community, IPNS has undertaken an aggressive development program to improve instrumentation to better serve materials scientists, chemists, polymer scientists, biologists, ceramists, geologists, and physicists in solving their problems. DOE's commitment to the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), with completion expected in 2006-2008, will lead to a considerable increase in available neutron scattering instrumentation in the U.S. In the meantime, instrument enhancements at IPNS will serve the expanding U.S. neutron user community, educate users in the optimal utilization of spallation neutron sources, and introduce new innovative instrument concepts that will be further exploited at SNS.

Among the new capabilities at IPNS to be discussed are: (1) powder diffraction studies of materials in applied magnetic fields, (2) simultaneous studies of dynamics and structure of, for instance proton conducting materials, using a new quasielastic neutron spectrometer, (3) real-time powder diffraction (<5 minutes per pattern) studies using a dramatically upgraded powder diffractometer, (4) small angle diffraction studies of such things as DNA-protein interactions and self-assembly of block co-polymers, and (5) diffraction studies of levitated liquids.