Center For Nanophase Materials Sciences - Facility and Capabilities

Facility and Capabilities

The CNMS is housed in a new 80,000-ft2 building on Chestnut Ridge adjacent to the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). Construction of the CNMS facility began in August 2003 and was completed in April 2005, with the nanoscience user research program beginning operation in October 2005. The four-level main building comprises wet and dry laboratories, office space, and common areas to promote interaction among staff, long-term research guests, and users. It is equipped with a wide range of specialized tools for synthesis, characterization, and integration of hard and soft materials. The 10,000-ft2 Nanofabrication Research Laboratory, housed in a one-level wing of the building, includes clean rooms and an area designed to meet the requirements of electron beam imaging and writing instruments (low electromagnetic field, low vibration, low acoustic noise). The Nanomaterials Theory Institute provides collaborative workspaces, visualization equipment, and high-speed connections to the terascale computing facilities of ORNL’s National Center for Computational Sciences and the national Leadership Scientific Computing Facility. The intense neutron beams of the SNS and of the recently upgraded High Flux Isotope Reactor afford unique opportunities for fundamental studies of the structure and dynamics of nanoscale materials. The CNMS will provide a gateway to these and other ORNL user facilities, including electron microscopy, for users whose research can benefit from access to multiple facilities.