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Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
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6

Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

PANEL MEMBERS

James Economy, University of Illinois, Chair

Dawn A. Bonnell, University of Pennsylvania

Stephen Z.D. Cheng, University of Akron

Michael J. Cima, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

F.W. Gordon Fearon, Dow Corning Corporation

Katharine G. Frase, IBM Microelectronics Division

David W. Johnson, Jr., Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies

Rodney A. McKee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Donald R. Paul, University of Texas at Austin

Elsa Reichmanis, Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies

Iwona Turlik, Motorola Advanced Technology Center

James C. Williams, Ohio State University

Walter L. Winterbottom, AEMP Corporation

Submitted for the panel by its Chair, James Economy, this assessment of the fiscal year 2000 activities of the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory is based on site visits by individual panel members, a formal meeting of the panel on March 16-17, 2000, in Gaithersburg, Md., and documents provided by the laboratory.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

LABORATORY-LEVEL REVIEW

Laboratory Mission

According to laboratory documentation, the mission of the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory (MSEL) is to promote U.S. economic growth by working with industry to develop and use a measurements and standards infrastructure for materials.

MSEL strives to meet its mission through the work of four laboratory divisions: Materials Reliability, Metallurgy, Polymers, and Ceramics; through the MSEL Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science (CTCMS); and through the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). The four divisions and the NCNR are reviewed in detail below; the work of CTCMS cuts across the divisions and is assessed in the context of the divisions' work. In general, the panel found the work going on in the MSEL to be appropriate to the MSEL and NIST missions. As discussed in the following section, it is a continual challenge to the MSEL not just to meet the measurement and standards needs that industry can currently identify but also to anticipate future needs of both established and nascent industries. This is particularly true given the enormous structural changes under way in industry as globalization continues. The panel notes, however, that while industries may change, the need for basic measurements and standards will exist as long as there is commerce. By continuing to focus on the basic measurement and standards mission of NIST, MSEL is most likely to ensure the relevance of its work to the U.S. industrial infrastructure.

Technical Merit and Appropriateness of Work

MSEL continues to maintain the strong technical merit of its programs. Examples of programs that are at the state of the art or define it can be found throughout the laboratory. For example, the Synchrotron Radiation Characterization Program develops, maintains, and applies measurement methods using synchrotron radiation for a variety of materials science problems. This program is carried out by scientists of outstanding abilities, who have great enthusiasm for their work and have made possible unparalleled materials characterization capabilities. These capabilities are utilized not only by MSEL researchers but also by other NIST scientists and their industrial and academic collaborators. Another outstanding project investigated the causes of “sharkskin, ” an undesirable surface roughness that sometimes comes about during extrusion of polymers. By using a state-of-the-art velocimetry measurement technique, the laboratory has gained fundamental insights into this phenomenon. These insights will open up multiple avenues for improving polymer extrusion processes. These are only two examples of the many technically excellent programs going on in MSEL. The divisional reports below give detailed assessments of the technical merit of ongoing projects and programs.

With few exceptions, MSEL's programs and projects are appropriate tasks for NIST. They utilize unique NIST expertise or measurement capabilities or address topics that would not normally be investigated by industrial or academic colleagues. It is clear that the programs are generally addressing identified industry needs. Since measurements and standards often underpin advances in technology, however, it is not enough for MSEL to simply meet currently identified needs. It must anticipate measurements and standards needs before they arise. MSEL expends substantial efforts to do so, interacting with its customers and potential customers formally and informally. It makes particularly good use of workshops, convening meetings of scientists and engineers from across industry sectors to determine the need for measurement and standards in emerging areas. Nonetheless, the panel urges MSEL to explore additional avenues to determine anticipated needs, giving particular attention to

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
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developing ties at the appropriate technical and managerial levels in its customer organizations to obtain the insights it requires to make major programmatic decisions.

Many of the most pressing problems in materials science exist at the interfaces of disciplines within the field or between materials science and other fields. Many interdisciplinary efforts, both intra-and interlaboratory, were observed by the panel. The panel applauds the application of technical talent to problems without regard to the administrative unit in which the talent is found. Most if not all of these interactions developed on an ad hoc basis through the initiative of individual scientists. The panel believes that greater potential for synergy exists in the laboratory, and MSEL should consider mechanisms to specifically foster such inter- and intralaboratory collaborations. A good example of such a mechanism is CTCMS, which serves as an intellectual gathering place for researchers from across MSEL who find that computational methods can advance their work. Just as CTCMS has provided MSEL researchers with a new capability, the panel believes the potential exists for major new strengths at MSEL if additional interdisciplinary collaborations can be fostered.

Impact of Programs

The primary impact of MSEL programs is achieved through the eventual adoption of NIST results by industry. This transfer of technical knowledge and techniques is important but often difficult to quantify. However, the collective experience of the panel members leads to the judgment that MSEL programs do have a positive impact on the industries served, and often a substantial one. The divisional reports below detail some of the successes MSEL has had in the past year.

MSEL disseminates the results of its research projects through means as formal as refereed technical publications and as informal as taking telephone inquiries. The panel applauds the priority the laboratory gives to ensuring that the information it generates is placed in the public domain whenever feasible and is available for public use. This priority guides the laboratory's use of the World Wide Web, publications, and decisions on when and whether to seek patents. Staff clearly understand that their results are of no worth if they do not reach the customers who need them.

The laboratory has continued to seek new ways to reach its customers. The panel was particularly pleased with the Recommended Practice Guides that MSEL has begun providing as part of its services. These highly practical guides will help ensure that NIST customers properly implement the standards and measurements techniques they obtain from NIST. MSEL's use of the World Wide Web has continued to mature, and the panel applauds MSEL efforts to exploit this medium efficiently. The panel suggests that better use could be made of information on the type and frequency of hits to various MSEL Web pages to measure program impact.

Laboratory Resources

Funding sources for the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory are shown in Table 6.1. As of January 2000, staffing for the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory included 178 full-time permanent positions, of which 151 were for technical professionals. There were also 34 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers. A year earlier, these numbers were 199, 166, and 39, respectively.

Equipment and facilities of the MSEL are generally adequate to the tasks before it. The exception to this are facilities at the Boulder site, which require repairs (see the Materials Reliability Division report below).

The factor that currently limits MSEL is the number of personnel. Flat budgets and mandated salary and benefit increases have combined to squeeze the effective budget available for staff. All areas of

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

TABLE 6.1 Sources of Funding for the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory (in millions of dollars), FY 1997 to FY 2000

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year

1997 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1998 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year

2000 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

31.4

30.9

30.6

30.5

Competence

0.2

0.0

0.3

0.2

ATP

3.4

3.0

2.5

2.2

Measurement Services (SRM production)

1.0

0.7

0.9

0.7

OA/NFG/CRADA

6.6

4.9

3.8

2.8

Other Reimbursable

0.6

0.2

0.2

0.6

Totala

43.2

39.7

38.3

37.0

Full-time permanent staff (total)b,c

214

209

199

178

NOTE: Funding for the NIST Measurement and Standards Laboratories comes from a variety of sources. The laboratories receive appropriations from Congress, known as Scientific and Technical Research and Services (STRS) funding. Competence funding also comes from NIST's congressional appropriations but is allocated by the NIST director's office in multiyear grants for projects that advance NIST's capabilities in new and emerging areas of measurement science. Advanced Technology Program (ATP) funding reflects support from NIST's ATP for work done at the NIST laboratories in collaboration with or in support of ATP projects. Funding to support production of Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) is tied to the use of such products and is classified as Measurement Services. NIST laboratories also receive funding through grants or contracts from other government agencies (OA), from nonfederal government (NFG) agencies, and from industry in the form of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs). All other laboratory funding, including that for Calibration Services, is grouped under “Other Reimbursable.”

a The funding for the NCNR is excluded from these totals. Information about the Center's funding is available in the section of this report containing the subpanel review of that facility.

b NCNR personnel are excluded from these totals. Information about the center's personnel is available in the section of this report containing the subpanel review of that facility.

c The number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

MSEL are tightly staffed, with important programs staffed just one deep with no trained backup. Some areas of MSEL have been affected by reductions in force and the upheaval and effect on morale that result.

The panel applauds MSEL's use of postdoctoral fellows to obtain new talent and skills without long-term commitment. This mechanism helps MSEL meet short-term staffing needs and allows it to sample available talent and recruit those whose skills match MSEL's long-term needs. The value of postdoctoral positions as a recruitment tool is demonstrated by the fact that four of the five current division chiefs came to MSEL through the postdoctoral program. The panel applauds a fiscal year 2001 proposal for increased funding for the postdoctoral program at NIST and hopes for the proposal's success, because more postdoctoral fellows would be a boon to MSEL.

The panel applauds initial MSEL efforts to better integrate staff and activities at Boulder with those at Gaithersburg. These efforts must continue and even strengthen. The panel is pleased that the MSEL director has designated funds for managers and researchers to travel between Boulder and Gaithersburg to determine the potential for, and to carry out, interdivisional collaborations. The panel urges MSEL management to seek additional methods to integrate the work of the two campuses.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

DIVISIONAL REVIEWS

Ceramics Division
Division Mission

According to division documentation, the mission of the Ceramics Division is to work with industry, standards bodies, academia, and other government agencies and in providing the leadership for the nation's measurements and standards infrastructure for ceramic materials.

This mission conforms with both the MSEL and the NIST missions, and the programs going on in the Ceramics Division are aimed toward this mission. The programs cover a broad cross section of ceramic materials, processing, and characterization1 and are generally chosen to have measurement methods and standards as their research outcome.

Technical Merit and Appropriateness of Work

The Ceramics Division has a strong reputation for excellence based on the quality of its researchers, the effectiveness of its management, and a track record of providing high-quality and useful measurement methods and standards. The division has been diligent in evolving its program mix to meet the needs of the modern ceramic materials field.

The primary focus of the Ceramic Coatings Program has been ceramic thermal barrier coatings, with specific attention paid to coatings produced by plasma spray techniques. The program has contributed to the understanding of the sources of coating defects, with emphasis on effects of the powder source material and plasma spray conditions. The program recently investigated the relative distribution and orientation of cracks and porosity within plasma spray coatings and is one of the leaders in developing methods to determine in situ film stress. Thermal barrier coatings fail by oxidation and stress at the bond coat. Methods for monitoring this stress with time and as a function of environmental conditions form the basis for rational life prediction models of the thermal barrier.

The division is facing some shifts in the technical direction of the Ceramic Coatings Program. There is a trend toward physical vapor deposition (PVD) as the method of choice for producing coatings in aircraft engines, because it produces more reliable coatings than thermal spray methods. The Ceramics Coatings Program is moving into this area, and the panel supports this move. Indeed, some of the division's novel characterization methods are directly transferable to industrial use. The division recognizes that it must reduce effort on powder behavior, since this is not a factor for PVD-deposited coatings. The panel supports expanding the use of division expertise beyond thermal barrier coatings into, for example, more wear coatings applications. The area of wear coatings is an important one for ceramics, and expanding research in this area would result in a significant increase in the materials available for study. The group has successfully leveraged partnerships with producers of thermal barrier coatings to gain access to samples of state-of-the-art coatings. A similar approach is recommended in other application areas.

The technical focus of the Ceramics Manufacturing Program has been primarily in two areas: ceramic powder characterization (including both raw materials and particle dispersions in liquid media)

1  

U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Ceramics: 1999 Programs and Accomplishments, NISTIR 6433, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., January 2000.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

and characterization of machining damage. The program has also developed a considerable number of Standard Reference Materials (SRMs). A recent effort has been the development of a Guide to Practice for characterization of particle size and size distribution of ceramic powders. This document will provide general guidelines for applying measurement and characterization methods to ceramic powders. The division has worked hard to incorporate industrial input on the direction and scope of the program through the establishment of the Ceramic Processing and Characterization Council and the Ceramic Machining Consortium.

The Ceramic Thin Film Measurements and Standards Program focuses on functional ceramic thin films, which are critical to many emerging technologies and to evolving applications in electronics, telecommunications, and information handling. The program receives advice from an industrial review panel that reports annually. As a consequence, the focus of the program has moved toward thin film characterization. This approach exploits the competences of current program staff and recently produced several advances. A notable example is a protocol for quantifying the texture in a microstructure, a technology developed by the division that has already been transferred to a collaborator in industry. This project resulted in a software product now available on the Web site. Another example is a cross-laboratory effort with the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory to develop methodologies for measuring the composition of dielectric films, such as those used in III-V semiconductor compounds. A new project in this program focuses on the measurement of ferroelectric domain structure and stability. This technology is used in memory devices and other electronic and optoelectronic applications. This project, which promises to have considerable impact, involves challenging nanometer-scale metrology issues. Results from the Ceramic Thin Film Measurement and Standards Program continue to be published in the most highly regarded journals in the field.

The Magnetic Materials Program contributes through the development of techniques for nanotribology. The focus of this program is on measuring friction, stiction, adhesion, wear, and durability of magnetic hard-disk systems. This program has resulted in valuable understanding on how to evaluate wear and lubrication in magnetic disks. The panel believes that the division's expertise and experimental equipment for nanotribology could also provide measurements and standards for the friction and adhesion problems being encountered by the emerging microelectromechanical systems industry. The Ceramics Division is planning a workshop to explore opportunities in this area.

The Mechanical Properties of Brittle Materials Program has been around a long time but continues to evolve to meet emerging needs. The Ceramics Division has historically led the world in developing understanding of brittle materials and testing methodologies and standards for them. The division's contributions to knowledge and practice in this area continue at a high level. A prominent example of the division 's results is the release of the OOF (object-oriented finite element) software for modeling properties of complex microstructures. The public domain program has been downloaded by more than 300 researchers, many of whom are providing feedback to the division for use in future upgrades. Current activity seeks to incorporate electromechanical responses into the software's models. Another noteworthy direction is the development of techniques to measure ceramic membrane properties at high temperature. Current work focuses on the development of instrumentation to characterize material stress, including indentation protocols for testing the materials. The panel applauds the efforts to scale the Mechanical Properties of Brittle Materials Program to current needs and to leverage the division's expertise in mechanical properties to new fields. This group of researchers can make significant contributions in nanoindentation, nanotribology, microadhesion, properties of biomedical materials, and other areas. By attacking problems of cellular adhesion to medical implants, for example, the program could gain expertise in the properties of biomolecular systems, and the biomolecular materials community would benefit from the rigorous approaches developed in this program.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

The Phase Equilibria for Ceramics and Metals Program is another long-standing program within the division that has been highly praised in the past, so that little needs to be added in this report. Thermodynamic phase equilibrium data, which identify and quantify the final, stable products of a process, are essential tools for developers and manufacturers of engineered materials. The program has provided information to the ceramics community that could not have been easily obtained otherwise. The data assembled in this program are used broadly, not only within the ceramics community but also in related fields. Importantly, this program is not merely compiling experimental data but is also developing first-principles models as a basis for the equilibria. The panel holds this up as a good example of a program that has a long history of relevant results, has produced valuable output, and evolves appropriately with changing needs.

The Synchrotron Radiation Characterization Program is one of the gems of the division. It involves the operation of beam stations at the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory and the commissioning of beam stations at the Advanced Photon source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. The technical merit of this program is very high, with access to facilities with unparalleled capabilities for materials characterization. The demonstrated technical achievements include materials characterization on a variety of scales, which can be used, for example, to determine local crystallographic order. The high photon flux available at these beam lines makes it possible to perform these measurements on very small samples, on very small regions of a larger sample, and on samples that quickly decompose upon exposure to x rays. The division believes the APS beam lines will make it possible to obtain data from a sample or regions of samples less than 1 mm in size. This goal is very impressive and could lead to entirely new ways to characterize microstructures that can only now be determined by laborious transmission electron microscopy methods. The high photon flux that will be available will also make possible the study of extended defects in crystals and material damage that is difficult to observe by other methods. The scientists participating in this program are of the highest caliber and exude enthusiasm for their work. There is commitment to this program from across the MSEL and throughout NIST.

Finally, the panel suggests that the division assess what contributions it could make to the important area of optical materials. Examples of areas in which the division's expertise might be leveraged include the structural characterization of glass in graded structures; the measurement of optical properties in electro-optic ceramics; and the development of practical, low-cost, in situ measurements of index of refraction during optical film growth.

Impact of Programs

As is often the case for research, it is difficult to quantify the impact of the division's programs. However, one program whose impact can be quantified is the OOF computer program. It has been downloaded by more than 300 users, and the related mailing list contains more than 100 subscribers. The panel notes that some development at the level of the inexperienced user would increase its impact to an even more general community. This could be accomplished by a Web-based tutorial that, in contrast to formal workshops or tutorial courses, is available to users at the time they realize they need it. Similarly, for the Phase Equilibria for Ceramics and Metals Program, the sales of output data compilations give ample quantitative evidence of the positive impact. Finally, the willingness of the members of the industrial review panel that provides guidance to the Ceramic Thin Film Measurements and Standards Program to donate their time and expertise is concrete evidence of the importance of this program to the industries it serves.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

The impact of the Synchrotron Radiation Characterization Program is high. The proposed move toward high-throughput testing of materials is very timely, given the exploding interest in combinatorial techniques for materials discovery. This direction supports important objectives for NIST since it can make possible rapid development of materials data and can validate combinatorial methods or at least the experimental protocols used for a given series of combinatorial tests. Numerous examples exist of the technical impact of this program. For example, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization now uses protocols developed in this program to evaluate subsurface machining damage on missile detector windows. The staff of this program have produced a large number of publications, both on their own and as collaborators with investigators at other institutions.

The Ceramics Manufacturing Program is a large, reorganized effort with new management that aims at increasing its impact. The panel concluded that the NIST mission might be better served with a more fundamental approach to ceramics manufacturing or, better still, a special emphasis on new and novel techniques for measuring important process conditions. One example might be an effort on methods that measure the largest particles in a distribution rather than the average particle size. It is these large particles that cause problems in ceramic component quality. There are, however, no accepted means by which to judge the fraction of such large particles in raw materials for ceramics manufacturing. Another example is in the area of new techniques for measuring very small particles (nanoparticles) in suspensions (sols) where light-scattering methods are not reliable. The panel believes that the Ceramics Processing and Characterization Council and the Ceramics Machining Consortium are useful organizations that can enhance communication in these manufacturing areas. The panel suggests that the Ceramics Processing and Characterization Council continue to be relied on for communication and that the Ceramics Division take a stronger role in leveraging its in-house expertise and experience in project selection.

The impact of the Ceramic Coatings Program can be assessed by looking at industry's needs. The use of thermal barrier coatings will soon become critical for many components; that is, the component will not function without the coating. Thus, considerable effort is being directed at life prediction methodologies and reliability assessment within industry. Much of the industrial effort is based on building statistical databases and could benefit from serious analytical and experimental efforts to understand coating failure. This is precisely where the NIST Ceramic Coating Program has positioned itself. The program has also been recognized for several of its publications on thermal spray.

The panel affirms the potentially large impact of new activities in nanoscale characterization such as ferroelectric switching and nanotribology. This is an emerging field in which metrology and quantification are currently limiting progress. NIST is well positioned in terms of expertise, infrastructure, and mission to develop measurement methods and standards in this field if given the needed resources. The Ceramics Division has the potential to have a great impact and is encouraged to think about whether it is able to devote more resources to optimize this impact.

Finally, the panel recognizes the positive impact of the SRMs that division has developed and supports the division's current efforts to develop SRMs for x-ray powder diffraction.

The panel believes strongly that the dissemination efforts of the Ceramics Division are having a maximum impact. The panel applauds the ongoing efforts to use the Web as an information dissemination tool as an alternative to heavy reliance on scientific publications. Indeed, the development of the online Ceramics WebBook is a major step in making the research output of the division useful and available to the entire U.S. user community. Similarly, the evaluated materials property data for ceramics constitute an effort with positive impact. It is the recommendation of the panel that projects to make data available on the Web be continued.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

TABLE 6.2 Sources of Funding for the Ceramics Division (in millions of dollars), FY 1997 to FY 2000

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year

1997 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1998 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year

2000 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

9.3

9.3

9.4

8.7

Competence

0.2

0.0

0.0

0.1

ATP

0.9

0.7

0.7

0.5

Measurement Services (SRM production)

0.3

0.2

0.3

0.2

OA/NFG/CRADA

1.4

1.3

1.2

1.0

Other Reimbursable

0.2

0.1

0.1

0.2

Total

12.3

11.6

11.7

10.7

Full-time permanent staff (total)a

63

62

59

57

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 6.1.

a The number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

Division Resources

Funding sources for the Ceramics Division are shown in Table 6.2. As of January 2000, staffing for the Ceramics Division included 57 full-time permanent positions, of which 49 were for technical professionals. There were also 10 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers.

The division has been reducing its dependence on other agency (OA) funding. However, the fiscal year 2000 Scientific and Technical Research and Services (STRS) funding necessitates an increase in OA funding to maintain current programs. The division is committed to increasing this OA funding while keeping its current program focus. The panel supports this approach to OA funding.

The division does support some unique facilities such as those in the Synchrotron Radiation Characterization Program. Resources within the division appear to be sufficient to meet the needs of the program at present but will be strained if all of the new areas proposed by the division are pursued while the program continues work on characterizing materials using existing methods. The space available to the division is adequate for its needs. Construction of the new Advanced Measurement Laboratory (AML) will make high-quality space available to the division.

Finally, the panel commends the Ceramics Division staff for their high-quality work and the division chief, in particular, for his skilled guidance of ceramic programs and responsiveness to the changing needs of the nation in the field of ceramic materials.

Materials Reliability Division
Division Mission

According to division documentation, the mission of the Materials Reliability Division is to develop measurement technologies that enable the producers and users of materials to improve the quality and reliability of their products.

The mission is sufficiently focused to encourage well-defined projects with, for the most part, well-defined goals. The programs of this division comply with NIST's mission to promote economic growth

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

by working closely with industry. The areas chosen for research complement other national efforts appropriately and address nationally important sectors of the measurement and standards arena. Each group in the division has ties to appropriate industries.

Technical Merit and Appropriateness of Work

The Materials Reliability Division underwent substantial changes in fiscal year 1999. Funding reductions forced a significant reduction of staff in June 1999. Furthermore, the focus of the division has been shifting to electronic materials research. Staff members have been working to apply their expertise to new types of materials and to problems on a significantly different size scale. The division has shaped existing projects to maximize the capability of its limited staff.

The panel has concluded that the technical merit of the Materials Reliability Division is consistently high. The existing programs address the critical need of industry for mechanical testing of microelectronic structures, infrared (IR) microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and ultrasonic characterization of materials. Plans are well coordinated, and the results of the programs are equal to or better than the results of the best national laboratories, academia, or industrial laboratories. However, stronger focus is needed on applying the results of all of the research programs into the area of predictive modeling to help industry reduce the cycle time to new products.

The division has focused its work on three major themes: microstructure sensing, process sensing and modeling, and microscale measurements.

Efforts in microstructure sensing focus on the application of ultrasonic measurements to characterize the internal geometry of materials. This includes characterizing defects, microstructures, and lattice distortions. Although these projects are still directed primarily at the metalworking industry and focus on characterization of metal and alloy microstructure, the division increasingly is directing them to applications for the electronics industry. For example, measurement and modeling of elastic properties is being applied to diverse systems, including metals, alloys, composites, ceramics, and high-critical-temperature (Tc) superconductors. The division has developed ultrasonic methods for measuring the elastic properties of thin films on silicon substrates, has extended the use of resonance ultrasound spectroscopy to measurements of crystals with trigonal symmetry, and is developing diffuse field methods to measuring internal friction in structural materials. These model-based measurements enable industry to replace microscopy with nondestructive methods for the microstructural characterizations needed to ensure the quality of advanced electronics and structural materials.

The process sensing and modeling effort includes both basic research and the development and production of SRMs. Weld-process-sensing efforts include the development of both sensors and models for understanding welding processes. A NIST-developed intelligent robotic arc-welding cell (developed in a collaboration between the division and the NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory) is being used to test and demonstrate interface and data exchange standards under development by the American Welding Society for robotic welding cells. This welding cell is integrated into an intranet to demonstrate remote collaboration, programming, and control. Digital image correlation is being developed for achieving full-field strain measurements of aluminum alloy test specimens. These data will eventually be used to improve finite-element simulation of forming operations. The eventual goal is to better understand these operations, which would allow reducing or eliminating the costly need to redesign and rework the forming dies used in aluminum-forming operations so as to achieve the tolerances needed in the automotive industry. In the SRM branch of this effort, the division procures, characterizes, and certifies ferrite reference materials (RMs) 8480 and 8481. Primary calibration of the instruments used to measure the ferrite content in stainless steel welds is based on coating thickness

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

SRMs, but the American Welding Society Standard also specifies secondary calibration utilizing the more durable ferrite RMs.

The microscale measurements effort for electronic device packaging structures strongly supports the microelectronics fabrication industry. The effort in microscale measurements consists of six projects addressing critical materials and measurement issues in the microelectronics and electronic packaging areas. The unique feature of this group is its concentration on specimen sizes and shapes identical to those found in microelectronics. These specimens are so small that frequently their size, and the fact that they are nearly all surface, determine their properties, which may be far from the bulk (handbook) values. Staff have in-depth expertise, with basic understanding of the physics and materials science underlying the observed behavior of the materials and structures. Staff interactions with industry, the technical community, and industry consortia (Semiconductor Industry Association, Semiconductor Research Corporation, National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, etc.) are maintained continuously at as high a level as possible for such a relatively small effort. Noteworthy progress was made in the past year toward an absolute, steady-state method for measuring the thermal conductivity of thin films of the dimensions typically used in large-scale integrated circuits and their packages. These measurements are important, since the ability to measure the heating of such components and to effectively cool them is critical to achieving a reliable lifetime of service for critical elements of the package. Construction and utilization of an IR microscope for proper measurement of these samples have progressed to the point of obtaining first data, and a manuscript describing this research is in preparation.

Impact of Programs

The programs continue to have a strong impact on the metalworking industry. They are also having a visible impact on the microelectronics industry. The existing skill base could also address needs in the computer and telecommunication industry. The quality of scientific publications and their reference and use by colleagues outside NIST are high and reflect credit on staff. The division responded appropriately to the panel's suggestion that the Web could facilitate broader and faster dissemination of its results. For example, the annual publication 2 describing the division's programs and accomplishments is now available at the division's Web site. The division might consider offering short courses to industry to help disseminate advances in measurement technology more quickly.

Division Resources

Funding sources for the Materials Reliability Division are shown in Table 6.3. As of January 2000, staffing in the Materials Reliability Division included 19 full-time permanent positions, of which 17 were for technical professionals. There were also three nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers.

The division suffered another reduction in funding for the year 2000, following a 1999 reduction. As a result, the number of staff was reduced by about one-third in June 1999. Management accomplished this reduction by judiciously restructuring projects and reassigning personnel. The resulting redistribution of capability has preserved the momentum toward near-term project outcomes in electron

2  

U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Materials Reliability 1999 Programs and Accomplishments, NISTIR 6434, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., January 2000.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

TABLE 6.3 Sources of Funding for the Materials Reliability Division (in millions of dollars), FY 1997 to FY 2000

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year

1997 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1998 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year

2000 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

3.9

4.2

4.1

3.6

ATP

0.7

0.7

0.3

0.3

Measurement Services (SRM production)

0.4

0.2

0.4

0.2

OA/NFG/CRADA

0.8

0.8

0.4

0.1

Other Reimbursable

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.2

Total

5.8

5.9

5.2

4.4

Full-time permanent staff (total)a

32

31

29

19

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 6.1.

a The number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

ics, while decelerating efforts toward longer-term outcomes in mechanics and terminating unfunded outside projects, as noted by the panel last year. The panel believes that the division has reached a critical point. If a state-of-the-art Materials Reliability Division is to be maintained in the face of further reductions in personnel and budget, an alternative support strategy will be needed.

The division is housed in Building 2 on the NIST Boulder campus. This building's roof leaks whenever it rains. This is not acceptable in laboratory space that must accommodate expensive precision instruments such as electron microscopes, which cost NIST on the order of $300,000 each. As the division shifts the focus of its work away from structural materials toward microelectronics, the kind of laboratory space it needs is changing. For example, the division's high-bay area was useful when it was testing large structural elements, but as currently configured, the area cannot provide the level of environmental control necessary for microelectronics measurements. The division is gradually renovating the space to meet its new requirements, but the process is slowed by a lack of funds.

Polymers Division
Division Mission

According to division documentation, the Polymers Division mission is to provide standards, measurement methods, and fundamental concepts in support of the measurement infrastructure for U.S. industries that produce or use polymers in essential parts of their business.

This mission statement, although quite broad, is consistent with the needs of the very diverse industry that the Polymers Division serves. The division's programs have been carefully selected to have maximum impact on some of the most critical areas of polymer technology, since the polymer field is too broad to have viable programs in all of its technical areas.

Technical Merit and Appropriateness of Work

Many ongoing projects have been completed and new ones initiated by the Polymers Division in the past year. The new projects have been selected on the basis of their relevance to the division's

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

customers, and they aim to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration while working at the cutting edge of polymer science and engineering. Particularly noteworthy has been the introduction of combinatorial techniques for rapid acquisition of data about material behavior.

The Polymers Division is organized into five groups: Electronic Applications, Polymer Blends and Processing, Polymer Composites, Polymer Characterization, and Dental and Medical Materials.3 In addition, there is a division-wide effort in theory and modeling that is coordinated with MSEL's Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science. This effort is now well integrated into many programs in the division. The work of these groups is assessed in more detail below.

The Electronic Applications Group focuses on developing and implementing measurement tools, standards, and data for materials and material assemblies having micrometer- and submicrometer-scale dimensions, in addition to developing a fundamental understanding of polymer materials' structure and properties at or near surfaces. These efforts are effectively aimed at the materials measurement and standards needs of the electronics industry since advances in electronics technology drive the continued decrease in device dimensions. Work to understand the fundamentals of polymers at interfaces continues to progress. For example, near-edge x-ray absorption measurements carried out by the group suggest that surface chains of uniaxially deformed polystyrene relax faster than the bulk, a result consistent with the notion of a lower glass transition temperature within 5 nm of the free surface. Other noteworthy advances have been made in nanoporous materials, which are of interest as low-dielectric-constant materials for semiconductor device manufacturing. A unique combination of small-angle neutron scattering, high-resolution x-ray reflectivity, and ion scattering has been developed and applied to the characterization of critical parameters of these materials, such as pore size and connectivity, pore wall density, film thickness and composition, coefficient of thermal expansion, and moisture uptake. For high-dielectric-constant materials, an innovative microstrip test specimen and test protocol have been developed for dielectric measurements of polymer composite films with dielectric constant values up to 50 in a frequency range up to 5 GHz. This is noteworthy because these materials are under development for use as embedded passive components in wireless communications and high-speed electronics. A new initiative aimed at quantitatively measuring the line-edge roughness of lithographically defined polymer structures builds on this group's expertise to provide significant and growing value to industry.

The Polymer Blends and Processing Group completed five projects in the past year and took on several new directions that are of key relevance to many parts of the polymer industry. “Blends” are defined broadly to include dendritic molecules and high-surface-area fillers (e.g., organoclays and carbon nanotubes). The group is collaborating with other NIST laboratories and with a broad spectrum of industries and universities. Modeling and simulation play a large role in projects on blends, processing, phase separation, interfaces, and filler interactions. Highlights from two projects illustrate the level of innovation that pervades this group. First, polymer processing additives have long been known to alleviate the troublesome problems of surface roughness of extruded polymers known as sharkskin, but the reasons for this effect were not understood. In the past year the group has used a state-of-the-art velocimetry measurement technique to show that the additives function by promoting slip of the polymer melt at the die wall. This understanding will open up many possibilities for improvement of processing and development of new theories. Second, combinatorial techniques have been developed

3  

U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Polymers: 1999 Programs and Accomplishments, NISTIR 6435, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., January 2000.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

that will greatly accelerate the acquisition of data about polymeric material behavior on a broad front. The first efforts are focused on high-throughput measurement technology for rapid characterization of films and coatings—for example, dewetting, blend phase diagrams, and surface roughness gradient measurements. This combinatorial approach should be adopted by other groups within the division where appropriate.

The focus of the Polymer Composite Group has been effectively changed from liquid composite molding to the development and application of new metrology for characterizing hybrid composite systems. For example, permeability predictions guided by optical coherence tomography provide a new, nondestructive approach to determine both void volume and the distribution of voids in composite systems. This capability is now being used to evaluate automotive sandwich structures, coated laminates, and tissue scaffolds, where pore size and connectivity are key factors influencing cell growth and differentiation. With improved instrumentation this new tool will also yield data on fiber orientation and distribution. In another noteworthy example, the group's strong capabilities in controlling and characterizing material microstructure have been directed to develop economical metrology to qualify large tubular hybrid composite production risers being developed for oil rigs, a project funded by the Advanced Technology Program (ATP). The historic approach is a destructive test on full-scale sections, which cost almost $1 million for samples alone. The new approach being developed promises an order-of-magnitude reduction in sample costs. These tubular hybrid composites are also of interest for applications in civil infrastructure and alternative fuel vehicles. Market penetration of hybrid composite materials has historically been slow and is always paced by the identification and development of suitable and economical nondestructive metrology to predict the final properties of fabricated components. Approaches being developed by this group appear to be applicable in many fields, as evidenced by effective collaborations with industry leaders, including Ford and Shell.

The Polymer Characterization Group has also redirected its efforts. Notable changes are the completion of work on nonlinear viscoelasticity of solid polymers, physical aging and structural recovery in polymers, rheological characterization of polymer dynamics, and glass transition behavior in nanoscale confined geometries. A major new project on mass spectroscopy of polyolefins aims at providing measurement methods and standards needed by industry to characterize important properties of these polymers.

Since the previous assessment, the group has worked on preparing, calibrating, and supplying SRMs to U.S. and worldwide industries and organizations and on identifying, developing, or improving methods for characterizing solid-state polymer structures and morphologies so as to enhance scientists' ability to measure and model polymer properties.

The division's efforts on SRMs have focused on further refinement of standards for rheological measurements of non-Newtonian fluids. Twenty-three industrial and university laboratories are participants in round-robin testing of SRMs to be certified. The intrinsic viscosities of three narrow mass fraction polyethylenes have been determined, and their mass average molecular masses have been determined using light scattering, resulting in three new polyethylene SRMs.

Excellent progress has been made since the previous assessment in refining, adapting, and correlating classic methods of molecular mass characterization, such as size exclusion chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and light scattering, with the new matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) technique. A NIST-coordinated MALDI interlaboratory comparison program using a specially prepared polystyrene sample has been completed. Eighteen laboratories participated in this effort, including ten industrial, three government, and five academic laboratories, and the laboratory-to-laboratory reproducibility of number and mass average molecular masses has been determined. Efforts to expand the MALDI technique to nonpolar polyolefins are in progress. This should lead to a break

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

through of new applications of this method and major cost and time savings in product monitoring for polyolefin producers. This technique has also been extended to characterize molecular mass and structures for other polymers. An example is polymethacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane, where MALDI, TOF (time-of-flight), and MS (mass spectroscopy) revealed that the likelihood of the molecule reacting with itself does not increase as the molecule grows.

Another Polymer Characterization Group project aims to develop and use NMR techniques to characterize the molecular and morphological features that influence solid-state properties. The structural defects in solid-state polyolefins, the organization of chemically tethered alkane chains attached to silica gel surfaces, and composites of nylon 6 and clay by spectroscopic methods are under study. Polymer structure and morphology characterizations have also been carried out using microscopic and small-angle x-ray scattering methods. Both projects are exploring new methodologies and providing standard procedures and calibrations of these techniques for the U.S. polymer industry, as well as supporting other projects within the division.

The Dental and Medical Materials Group has continued to serve the dental materials industry and provides practicing dentists with new materials, reference materials, measurement methods, and technology transfer, while steadily refocusing NIST work to include important new thrusts such as tissue engineering for bone grafts. Technical accomplishments that have immediately impacted the dental materials industry include the development of near-infrared and dilatometric methods to monitor the cure and fill of dental cements, a microshear bond test to characterize bond strength between cements and enamel or dentin, and fluorescence methods to monitor the cure of cements and impression materials. This technology is being effectively transferred through strong collaborations with members of the American Dental Association. Efforts are also being made to develop improved bone fixation materials and evaluate biomaterials.

Impact of Programs

The Polymers Division has made a thoughtful selection of projects designed to have significant impact on broad industry segments, to be at the cutting edge of polymer science and engineering, to best utilize and develop its staff and facilities, and to have credibility with the external technical community. Projects have been selected with a great deal of input from experts in industry, in universities, and at NIST and have been organized to leverage resources through an extensive network of collaborations. The division has effectively networked with the industry it serves in order to receive inputs about needs and deliver outputs of results from NIST programs. Although rapid change is occurring within the chemical and polymer industry, the division has been effective in maintaining these relationships. These changes will necessitate an ever-increasing commitment, because the climate within the industry makes it challenging to construct collaborations. Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) are declining in favor of less formal mechanisms of collaboration with industry. Metrics for assessing these collaborations are needed. The division has a high level of productivity as measured by staff articles in journals, NIST reports, and oral presentations.

The Electronics Applications Group has been effective in establishing strong ties to the electronics industry and its materials suppliers. The unique capabilities of this group are being effectively utilized by industry consortia and individual companies. Real-time, well-documented daily interactions with industry collaborators lead to immediate implementation of NIST results in materials design and development efforts. The growth in the number of these interactions and collaborations, coupled with the number of publications and presentations, provides partial evidence of the program's productivity and value to industry. These interactions should continue to be developed and encouraged.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

The Polymer Blends and Processing Group continues to have valuable alliances with many companies. However, these alliances will have to be broadened to maximize the impact of the results coming from this group in combinatorial techniques for polymer systems, modeling and simulation, mechanisms for improved surface finish via processing additives, and other areas. The group's staff continue to publish a significant number of papers and reports and are involved in organizing meetings, symposia, and workshops. Three of the staff received significant recognition or awards from professional organizations in the past year.

The SRMs provided by the Polymer Characterization Group are essential to quality control for polymer manufacturing and to the support of polymer research programs spanning industry, academe, and other institutions. The improved time- and cost-effective polymer characterization methodologies developed by the group support nationwide polymer research and production enterprises. The project to develop new polyolefin SRMs is particularly useful because of the recent development of new catalysts and microstructural controlled polymerization techniques for these systems. The group 's molecular architectural understanding of polyolefins may lead to a series of new SRMs having different molecular structures.

The Dental and Medical Materials Program effectively leverages interactions with other organizations to further its ongoing projects. These interactions have been particularly effective in the area of dental materials, where approximately 30 researchers with the American Dental Association significantly augment NIST capabilities. Collaborations with other MSEL divisions are also apparent. Measurement tools and techniques, such as quantification of dental materials shrinkage during cure by shrinkage dilatometry, were effectively transferred to relevant industries. Opportunities in the area of tissue engineering couple well with the capabilities of this group and should be encouraged.

Division Resources

Funding sources for the Polymers Division are shown in Table 6.4. As of January 2000, staffing for the Polymers Division included 43 full-time permanent positions, of which 38 were for technical professionals. There were also nine nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers.

TABLE 6.4 Sources of Funding for the Polymers Division (in millions of dollars), FY 1997 to FY 2000

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year

1997 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1998 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year

2000 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

7.3

7.3

7.5

7.0

Competence

0.0

0.0

0.1

0.1

ATP

0.9

0.7

0.8

0.8

Measurement Services (SRM production)

0.0

0.1

0.1

0.1

OA/NFG/CRADA

1.1

0.8

0.8

0.8

Other Reimbursable

0.2

0.0

0.0

0.1

Total

9.5

8.9

9.3

8.9

Full-time permanent staff (total)a

47

46

45

43

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 6.1.

a The number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

The changes in leadership necessitated by the promotion of the Polymer Blends and Processing Group's leader to division chief have been made smoothly. New leadership has clearly energized the division by introducing some new directions and methodologies. The division has a renewed focus on planning for the future and an emphasis on leadership training for the staff. The panel observed a high level of enthusiasm among the staff for the changes that are under way.

Metallurgy Division
Division Mission

According to division documentation, the mission of the Metallurgy Division is to provide leadership in developing measurement methods, standards, and fundamental understanding of materials behavior needed by the U.S. materials metrology infrastructure for the more effective production and use of both traditional and emerging materials.4

Programs in support of this mission include not only development of new measurement methods, but also work with individual industry groups to develop and integrate measurements, standards, and evaluated data for specific, technologically important applications.

To ensure that division programs are appropriate to the mission, the division chief promotes extensive consultation and collaboration by her staff with their industrial customers and their international counterparts. Industrial roadmaps, workshops, technical meetings, and direct contact with industrial customers are used to establish priorities. Interdisciplinary teams, which often include collaborations with other MSEL divisions and NIST laboratories, are organized to meet the scientific and technical requirements of programs if a broad base of expertise is required. New program directions are selected only when NIST technical expertise and resources are judged to be sufficient to accomplish meaningful results and there is a clear path for implementation, with a focus on differentiating those areas in which the division can have the most meaningful impact with a small staff.

Technical Merit and Appropriateness of Work

The Metallurgy Division is organized into five groups according to core expertise: Metallurgical Processing, Electrochemical Processing, Magnetic Materials, Materials Structure and Characterization, and Materials Performance. Senior staff in each of the core disciplines have selected projects that draw upon the unique capability of staff and the world-class techniques available to them and that impact high-priority national industrial needs. Of the 17 major research initiatives currently under way, the following examples serve to illustrate the division's scope, as well as the technical excellence of its work.

Magnetic materials have become a critical component of recording media, motors, transformers, credit cards, sensors, checks, theft control devices, automotive timing devices, xerographic copiers, magnetic resonance imaging machines, and microwave communications. The breadth and pervasiveness of these applications are due essentially to the ever-expanding range of magnetic materials available, including metals, ceramics, and polymers, in the form of structures, castings, composites, thin

4  

U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Metallurgy: 1999 Programs and Accomplishments, NISTIR 6436, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., January 2000.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

films, multilayers, and nanocomposites. The division's program in magnetic materials has focused on development of the measurement science required to characterize magnetic properties and performance standards.

For example, the division has created a Magnetic Engineering Research Facility that is the foremost instrumented facility for magnetic thin-film production in the world. The division uses this facility to study the science underlying the manufacturing processes for giant magnetoresistance (GMR) materials. The ability to study and control process parameters has allowed staff in the Magnetic Materials Group to produce samples of GMR materials with unprecedented properties and to transfer the resulting understanding of the influence of process parameters on the properties of the material to numerous industrial collaborators. Another effort has involved the preparation and measurement of “Spintronic” materials, spin-dependent magnetic devices to be directly integrated onto semiconductor chips. This work has already contributed to an improved understanding of the preparation processes of systems. The group's cooperation with the National Storage Industry Consortium, which comprises 38 companies and numerous universities, leverages these efforts and creates a network for rapid dissemination of the group's technology.

The emerging field of nanotechnology may alter the way many things are designed and made—from vaccines, to computers, to automobile tires, to objects not yet imagined—and tailored magnetic materials will be an integral part of this development. Many activities going on within the Magnetic Materials Program contribute to this area, including preparation of magnetic nanomaterials, magnetic modeling, magnetic imaging, and study of the high-frequency properties of magnetic materials. The importance of the NIST role in this technology has been recognized by the National Science and Technology Council, which appointed the leader of the Magnetic Materials Group to membership in the federal Interagency Working Group on Nanoscience, Engineering, and Technology.

The Metals Processing Program has produced a number of successful measurement and modeling applications for the casting of aerospace materials, powder metallurgy, electroplating, and electronics. Although not reviewed in detail by the panel this year, electrodeposited coatings certified as SRMs for thickness, microhardness, and chemical composition are a significant contribution to the NIST mission. The measurement capability and mechanistic understanding of division staff have made possible the process control and modeling accomplishments necessary for standards' preparation.

Thermal spray sensor development and spray diagnostic studies within the division are focused on improving coating reliability. A capability in spray beam measurement tools has already been demonstrated, which seems certain to provide the basis for intelligent process controls. Collaboration with industrial, university, and government laboratories is providing an exchange of expertise. This thermal spray work is an excellent example of the division's support for many facets of the U.S. materials industry, from electronics to construction.

The project on lightweight materials for automotive applications has significantly speeded up the introduction of lightweight materials into the transportation industry, with capabilities for modeling sheet metal-forming processes and a state-of-the-art measuring system to provide forming data for validating the models. This project is a collaboration with the Materials Reliability Division. A major technical barrier to the application of lightweight sheet metal is applying understanding of sheet metal forming to tool and die design and predicting deformation under forming as a function of alloy composition. Improving the predictability of die and forming results for automotive components made of lightweight materials could save hundreds of millions of dollars each year for the U.S. automotive industry. Various division projects are providing industry with improved, physically based models for material behavior during forming, a model for surface roughening and die wall-sheet metal friction during forming, and standard test methods for database development on materials deformation proper

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

ties under forming conditions. Industrial collaborators contribute materials and give advice on commercial forming processes. Ultrasmall-angle x-ray scattering experiments are planned. Coupled with the theoretical studies of small-angle scattering from dislocations during deformation, these should further the understanding of clustering configurations and dislocation mobility. Staff in the Materials Performance Group are leading the planning for an international conference (Dislocations 2000) on the fundamentals of plastic deformation.

The Electronic Packaging, Interconnection, and Assembly Program consists of approximately 20 separate projects in packaging design, materials, and manufacture. In its earlier reports, the panel recommended increased involvement of the Metallurgy Division in these areas. The current program is consistent with the skills and expertise of the division. The division uses a very focused approach, with a small expert staff, to make significant contributions to a much larger field. Topics currently being investigated include understanding the properties of solder interconnects, the fundamental chemistry of fine-feature copper metallization, and the structure-property relationships in nanoscale layered structures. In addition, the Metallurgy Division has made significant contributions on alternative nonlead solder materials for electronic assembly through the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences and through its participation in and organization of discussion groups.

The division's participation in five working groups in the Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science is a good example of cross-divisional collaboration and contributes to basic understanding of fundamental material properties. Computational methods can interrogate key processes at finer time increments than a physical experiment can isolate; correlation of these computational methods with hard experimental data by the division is a powerful combination. The major future focus across the division and the MSEL on combinatorial methods to evaluate new materials more efficiently shows a similar cross-divisional collaborative approach.

Impact of Programs

The primary impact of MSEL programs is achieved through the eventual adoption of NIST results by industry. This transfer of technical knowledge and techniques is important but often difficult to quantify. As demonstrated by awards (enumerated below) and by the level of industrial support and collaborators, the technical work occurring in MSEL is held in high regard, including by the panel. Some examples help illustrate its impact. The high-quality magnetic moment standards produced by the division have been very beneficial for a wide variety of industries. The U.S. Association of Materials Producers has provided funding for the commercialization of models developed by the division for powder metal consolidation. Individual members of the division have provided specific help to U.S. industrial clients, who simply call on the phone with a problem. As an example, Honeywell requested the division's assistance in diagnosing a problem with a new magnetic thin film deposition tool. Thanks to the help of division scientists and their colleagues in other parts of NIST, the problem was diagnosed and a corrective action suggested quickly enough to keep Honeywell on schedule.

To further ensure that the technology being developed has the desired impact on the U.S. industrial community, the Metallurgy Division sponsors workshops; participates in technical consortia; and encourages staff to present papers, to attend professional meetings, and to play leadership roles in interagency and standards committees. Participation by industrial partners in the division's programs not only provides needed technical support for the division but also indicates the impact that programs can have if there is direct contact. However, active participation by industry in these programs is only one sign of the impact. Division programs focused on core technology needs in the electronics or transportation industries, for example, may not have the enthusiastic support of large corporations because they

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

may have proprietary developments in their own research programs that they are unwilling to expose to the broader community. However, NIST programs in critical technology areas may provide a stronger fundamental base for building U.S. competitiveness by enabling a larger number of small players to gain from cooperative research.

The World Wide Web is being used to provide technical data, simulation models, standards, and scientific information to the industrial community. It is unclear, however, if NIST management has been a strong enough leader in establishing NIST-wide guidelines for the scope of information provided or for managing information online. Access to accurate, properly formatted technical information is invaluable in an innovative research community, and NIST could set the standard for information transfer via this medium.

Staff of the Metallurgy Division received a number of honors in 1999. The NIST Samuel Wesley Stratton Award, the highest NIST honor for scientific excellence, was awarded for metrology to control thin film processing for GMR spin valves. The Bruce Chalmers Award was received from the Metallurgical Society for pioneering work in crystal growth. The division chief was named a fellow of the American Society for Metals (ASM) International. Individual staff members also received honors from the Institute of Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits (IPC) and the local chapters of Sigma Xi and ASM International.

Division Resources

Funding sources for the Metallurgy Division are shown in Table 6.5. As of January 2000, staffing for the Metallurgy Division included 42 full-time permanent positions, of which 39 were for technical professionals. There were also 11 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral research associates and part-time workers.

Metallurgy Division personnel produced a remarkable amount of high-quality research in 1999. The staff comprises experts with great enthusiasm, and morale appears to be high. Panel members were concerned that the slate of projects might be too broad for available staff; however, discussions with both management and staff confirmed staff were comfortable balancing several programs each and took

TABLE 6.5 Sources of Funding for the Metallurgy Division (in millions of dollars), FY 1997 to FY 2000

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year

1997 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1998 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year

2000 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

7.9

7.9

7.9

7.1

Competence

0.0

0.0

0.2

0.0

ATP

0.9

0.9

0.7

0.6

Measurement Services (SRM production)

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.2

OA/NFG/CRADA

2.3

1.5

1.2

0.8

Other Reimbursable

0.2

0.1

0.1

0.1

Total

11.6

10.6

10.2

8.8

Full-time permanent staff (total)a

55

53

50

42

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 6.1.

a The number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

pleasure in being allowed to do so. The division chief and her management team continue to carefully monitor the list of active projects and to set priorities based on the skills and resources of the division.

Retention is an issue taken very seriously by the management team. With few monetary incentives at their disposal to retain staff, they focus on work-life flexibility, support resources, and freedom from bureaucracy. Retention efforts have been highly successful to date. Still, there are issues. When someone with a critical skill leaves, the management team seriously considers whether to try to replace such a world-class expert. In several cases, an area of study has been dropped following the death or retirement of the key investigator. This illustrates just how close the Metallurgy Division is to critical mass.

There are clearly funding issues that affect the division's operations as well. If inflation is taken into account, internal funding has declined from year to year. Mandated cost-of-living adjustments and benefit increases have not been accompanied by increases in appropriations. The division has been successful thus far in finding OA and industrial funding consistent with its mission and scientific focus areas. Such funding is a validation of the timeliness and aptness of the division 's work but could become a distraction if the ratio of internal to external funding decreases.

Capital expenditures have been tightly monitored for several years and have declined to a level that affects the ability of the division to maintain world-class facilities. In 1999, the division did obtain some critical equipment for metal forming, but in the area of electronic materials, it has been forced by lack of funds to develop collaborations with the University of Maryland to gain access to critical equipment. Although these collaborations themselves are positive, the need to borrow equipment for key experiments may in the long run slow the division's progress. The laboratory transmission electron microscope, which is used to support the entire MSEL, is in dire need of replacement, but no funds are available in 2000. Funding constraints preclude the purchase not only of large equipment but also of many small enabling items for laboratories.

MAJOR OBSERVATIONS

The panel presents the following major observations:

  • MSEL continues to undertake programs that are well suited to the mission of NIST and have extremely strong technical merit.

  • MSEL expends considerable effort in determining industry needs for materials measurements and standards. MSEL should give particular attention to developing industrial ties at the appropriate technical and managerial levels that will allow it to anticipate future needs for measurements and standards.

  • The panel is pleased with the high priority MSEL places on releasing its results to the public domain—staff clearly understand that their results must reach customers to be of worth. The new Recommended Practice Guides should be an effective and highly practical tool for disseminating MSEL results.

  • Metrics for industrial impact need further development. More use could be made of information on the hits to MSEL's Web pages.

  • Flat budgets and mandated salary increases have left the laboratory very tightly staffed, with no backup available for some critical functions.

  • Better integration of the Boulder and Gaithersburg staff is important, and efforts here should be strengthened.

  • Boulder Building 2 needs significant repair and renovation so that it can provide an appropriate environment for the microelectronics measurements performed there.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

REVIEW OF THE NIST CENTER FOR NEUTRON RESEARCH

This annual assessment of the activities of the NIST Center for Neutron Research of the MSEL is based on a meeting of the Subpanel for the NIST Center for Neutron Research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology on February 24-25, 2000, and on the 1999 annual report of the NIST Center for Neutron Research.5

Members of the subpanel included Albert Narath, Sandia National Laboratories (retired), Chair; Zachary Fisk, Florida State University; Sol M. Gruner, Cornell University; John B. Higgins, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.; Eric W. Kaler, University of Delaware; Allan H. MacDonald, Indiana University; and David C. Rorer, Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Mission

According to NCNR documentation, the mission of the NCNR is to operate the NIST research reactor cost-effectively while assuring the safety of the staff and general public; to develop neutron measurement techniques, to develop new applications for these techniques, and to apply them to problems of national interest; and to operate the research facilities of the NCNR as a national facility. The vision of the NCNR is to ensure the availability of neutron measurement capabilities to meet the mission needs of NIST and the needs of U.S. researchers from industry, university, and other government agencies.

It is the considered judgment of the subpanel that the NCNR continues to be an essential component of the national measurement infrastructure. In addition to providing exemplary direct support to the internal programs of the NIST Measurement and Standards Laboratories, it supports a large and diverse national user community. The relative value of the NCNR as a national facility increased greatly in the past year as a result of the Department of Energy's decision to permanently shut down the Brookhaven high flux beam reactor (HFBR). Even before the HFBR shutdown, the domestic neutron scattering resources available to U.S. researchers were marginal at best in comparison with the resources available in Europe and Japan. With the HFBR loss, the importance of NCNR has become critical. Steps are being taken at NCNR to help offset this loss; one such step is additions to the triple-axis capability. The innovative measurement technologies pioneered at NCNR also strongly influence developments at other national facilities. It is evident from these considerations that NCNR contributes substantially to the NIST mission.

Technical Merit and Appropriateness of Work

Since the previous assessment NCNR has continued its traditionally impressive record of success in research and measurement capabilities. This success is in large measure attributable to management's effectiveness in balancing two often-conflicting imperatives: (1) meeting the needs of current users in an efficient and cost-effective manner and (2) developing facility enhancements that will provide future users with cutting-edge capabilities. The unique characteristics of the cold neutron source and the outstanding performance of the neutron scattering instrumentation attest to the excellence of past investment decisions. The initial performance of new instruments that have come on line during the past year provides confidence that this pattern will continue. At the same time, the number of significant scien

5  

U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST Center for Neutron Research: 1999 Programs and Accomplishments, NISTIR 6437, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., January 2000.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

tific and technological accomplishments at this facility continues to be impressive, indicating that current users are well served by NCNR staff and instruments.

Reactor and Research Facility Operations

NCNR staff and management are to be commended for continuing to maintain a remarkably high availability for the reactor and the cold neutron source. The reactor operated for 268 days during calendar year 1999, 94 percent of the maximum possible operating time. The cold source had six unplanned shutdowns during the calendar year, resulting in approximately 1 day of lost operation time. For a facility of this complexity, these are truly outstanding numbers.

While this operating record is enviable, safety always comes first at NCNR. Management has demonstrated that it will not hesitate to shut down the reactor in order to correct operational problems long before they can impact safety. This was confirmed as recently as January 2000, when an unscheduled extended shutdown was ordered to correct a mechanical problem with a fuel-handling tool, although the problem was not impacting reactor safety. Graphitar bearings in the fuel-handling tools were replaced with redesigned bearings to eliminate binding caused by radiation-induced swelling. At the time of this writing, the task was well on its way to completion several weeks ahead of schedule. The subpanel applauds management 's aggressive, uncompromising approach to corrective maintenance and its demonstrated willingness to sacrifice the operating schedule whenever necessary to keep the reactor in excellent operating condition.

Although collective radiation dose data were not yet available for the entire calendar year, data through August 1999 appeared to be closely tracking collective dose data from prior years. The annual total collective radiation dose for facility personnel showed a small but steady increase from 1996 to 1998, rising from 6.659 to 7.951 rem. This increase in collective dose is almost entirely the result of the growing number of personnel using the facility each year, with an increasing number of individuals being exposed to the same small doses of radiation. However, these radiation doses are still extremely low (average annual dose <13 mrem), and there is no concern for the health and safety of these personnel.

The facility has also maintained an excellent industrial safety record, with no lost workday injuries over the past 3 years.

The subpanel was pleased to learn that NIST has embarked on a program of installing automatic fire suppression systems in its buildings, where appropriate. NIST is also engaged in an extensive series of improvements to fire detection and alarm systems, which will allow more effective response by the fire-fighting staff in the event of an emergency. While the office/laboratory part of the reactor building will be included in the plans for fire suppression, the high bay areas in the confinement building and guide hall will not. In these last two areas, the emphasis, quite appropriately, will continue to be on fire prevention and early detection (aided by the new alarm system). Furthermore, the reactor staff and the fire department are trained in proper responses to fire in these and other areas. The subpanel urges that a high priority be given to completing the planned upgrades.

Management is also embarking on a long-term program to replace outmoded reactor control and monitoring instrumentation. New area radiation monitors were recently acquired, and several chart recorders were replaced by paperless data acquisition systems with liquid crystal displays (LCDS). Replacement of the nuclear instrumentation, which is becoming difficult to maintain, is planned. Experience at other reactors has shown that replacement of this type of instrumentation quickly pays for itself through reduced maintenance and greatly improved reliability of operation. This upgrade also provides

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

an opportunity to incorporate enhancements in human factors engineering into the control room displays and controls.

A shutdown is planned in the near future to install a new cooling tower and to replace the cold source with a new design that will improve the cold neutron flux by a factor of 2. These projects are further evidence of management's commitment to continuous improvement of the facility and its unrelenting pursuit of excellence. To complete the necessary exterior work before the onset of winter, work would have to be under way by summer 2000. It was not clear at the time of this assessment whether preparations would be completed in time to meet this schedule. If not, the shutdown would have to be delayed until spring 2001. Unfortunately, the shutdown period would then coincide with the scheduled upgrade of the Oak Ridge high-flux-isotope reactor (HFIR) facility, the only other U.S. steady-state neutron source.

To ensure the long-term availability of the facility, the reactor must be relicensed in 2004. This will require submission of a relicensing application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC), an environmental impact statement, a new accident analysis, revised technical specifications, and an operator requalification plan. Reactor staff seem particularly well positioned to carry this out with the formation of a new relicensing project group headed by the former director of nonpower reactors and decommissioning at the USNRC. The opportunity for public intervention in the licensing proceedings means that the reactor will be entering an extraordinarily sensitive period with respect to public relations. It is not too early for NIST to develop a plan for informing the public and soliciting public input on potential relicensing issues.

Instrumentation Development

Progress during the year in bringing next-generation instruments on line has been steady, although slower in some cases than had initially been hoped for. The high-flux backscattering spectrometer (HFBS) has become fully operational. The response to the first call for proposals to use this instrument was outstanding, and initial user experiments have already demonstrated the superior performance of the instrument. The disk chopper TOF spectrometer is expected to become available to users on a limited basis later this year. Other instruments are following closely. The improved performance of these instruments is being achieved at the price of greater complexity in design, construction, and operation. Based on the expectation that the resources needed to use these instruments optimally will be available, the subpanel strongly supports the high priority that NCNR has assigned to instrument development as a way to maintain its cutting-edge capabilities.

The subpanel observed previously that considerably more use could be made of the instruments with large user bases if there were enhancements to the available software. This is especially critical for the small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and reflectivity machines because of their substantial outside use. The need for this improvement is also noted in the recent user survey. The subpanel is pleased that substantial improvements were made in this area, and it encourages continuation and expansion of this activity.

Neutron Condensed-Matter Science

As in the past, the subpanel observed a very high level of competence, dedication, and enthusiasm among the in-house technical staff and visiting users. It comes as no surprise therefore that the quality of the science continues to be first rate.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

Chemical Physics. Researchers in NCNR's Chemical Physics Program both provide and use neutron scattering techniques for the study of atomic and molecular excitations in materials. In the past year these researchers obtained the first spectrum from the newly developed disc chopper spectrometer and carried out the first user experiments on the HFBS. The subpanel is pleased to see these new capabilities online. The first phase of the new detector bank for the filter analyzer neutron spectrometer is now being installed. A particularly significant accomplishment is the ability to access dynamical timescales as short as 10−7 second. The HFBS has been used to study the dynamics of confined systems, such as hydrogen diffusion in zeolite, the tunneling of methyl iodide in silica xerogel, the absorption of alkanes on grafoil, and the freeze-thaw characteristics of Portland cement. The broad user base includes scientists from Pennsylvania State University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Minnesota; University of Chicago; Princeton; Technische Universitaet Muenchen; DuPont; and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Magnetism and Superconductivity. The NCNR Condensed Matter Program is dominated by studies of the magnetic properties of new materials. Recent work includes studies of the geometrically frustrated spinel magnet ZnCr2O4. Inelastic scattering experiments using spin-polarized inelastic neutron scattering (SPINS) in this system have uncovered an unexpected first-order phase transition into an ordered state with a finite-energy localized-spin excitation of unknown origin. This exciting work, exploring new ground in the field of quantum magnetism, takes full advantage of the two-dimensional position-sensitive detector of SPINS. Another important scientific achievement is the careful study of spin density-wave order in the doped high-temperature superconductor La2CuO4+y, which was the Ph.D. thesis work of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student. This work obtained surprising and important new information about the interplay between stripe order and superconductivity in the cuprates. The addition of refractive optics to the 30-m SANS has allowed increased resolution which, in turn has enabled, for example, the observation of much lower applied magnetic fields of the vortex lattice in the superconductor ErNi2B2C.

Crystallography and Diffraction Applications. The Crystallography and Diffraction Applications Program develops and maintains the BT-1 powder diffractometer and the BT-8 double-axis diffractometer for the structural characterization of polycrystal and single-crystal materials. The BT-1 high-resolution powder instrument continues to be one of the high-use instruments at NCNR: 109 requests for instrument use in 1999 resulted in the collection of 1100 data sets on 300 different samples. With the permanent closing of the HFBR at Brookhaven National Laboratory, requests for instrument time on BT-1 will likely increase. To facilitate more efficient utilization, the crystallography team has created a Web page that provides many resources for BT-1 users. Potential users can access detailed information about the instrument configuration and input their sample compositions to check for absorption problems, gamma-ray production, and residual radioactivity after the experiment. Real-time remote data access and links to downloadable analysis software enhance the user experience.

The BT-8 double-axis diffractometer is utilized by industrial, government, and academic groups to obtain stress and texture information on a variety of industrial and infrastructure materials from railroad rails to space station aluminum. Work has continued on extracting single-crystal elastic constants from powder materials and is being directed at performing these measurements at high pressure. Determining the pressure dependence of elastic constants in polycrystalline materials may improve the processing of seismic data for geophysical prospecting, weapons monitoring, and planetary studies. The BT-8 instrument is also used to collect neutron diffraction data from single crystals, and work has been initiated to develop a new imaging plate neutron detector for this application.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

NIST Crystallographic Data Center activities previously supervised by NCNR have been transferred to the Ceramics Division of MSEL. However, NCNR staff continue to provide scientific support for this activity.

Surface and Interfacial Science. Researchers in the Surface and Interfacial Science Program carry out high-quality research while providing state-of-the-art reflectivity instruments for a large user community. NCNR's instruments are capable of measuring exceptionally low reflectivities and thus provide staff and users with nearly unique experimental capabilities. Staff continue to apply neutron reflectivity techniques to a variety of hard and soft interfaces, with applications ranging from magnetism to polymer science to biology. The biological investigations have allowed a unique determination of biomimetic membrane profiles by neutron reflectivity. This has been possible because of both the quality of the measured reflectivities and the development of an exact solution to the scattering “phase problem” under appropriate experimental circumstances. This work sets the stage for further studies of the location and orientation of proteins at surfaces and the effect of various surface modifications on protein conformation and, ultimately, function. This would be even more true if a way could be found to perform the measurement on a bilayer that does not have a monolayer rigidly anchored to a surface. Work on polymer interfaces includes the study of polymer diffusion in thin films. In this area there is substantial scientific overlap with work in the Macromolecular and Microstructure Science Program. Studies of magnetic systems involve probing interlayer coupling in magnetic systems, domain structures, and the giant magnetoresistance effect.

Macromolecular and Microstructure Science. Researchers in the Macromolecular and Microstructure Science Program very successfully meet their goals of developing methods and supporting a large and vigorous user community in this area. The methods of SANS and reflectivity relate submicron structure to bulk properties and provide key data for a broad range of materials. The staff's research ranges from polymers to surfactant science and phase behavior and is of uniformly high quality. The 30-m SANS instruments at the NCNR are also the workhorses of the U.S. scattering community. The range of sample environments that can be accessed by users is impressive, and the proposed upgrade of a shear cell to allow simultaneous rheological and scattering measurements will be very useful. Commissioning of the neutron spin echo (NSE) instrument this year and the upcoming availability of the ultrasmall-angle neutron scattering instrument will add more capabilities and allow further scientific advances. In particular, the NSE instrument and upgrades in the time slicing features of the SANS instruments will enable probes of dynamic motions over a range of timescales and momentum transfers (Q).

Life Sciences

NCNR is working to increase its activities in the life sciences. A key element for the success of this thrust is the development of a new instrument oriented toward reflection and diffraction studies of biomembranes. NCNR has been approached by a collection of biophysicists from several institutions across the United States who wish to use such capability and who have submitted a proposal with NCNR to NIH for the construction and operation of this instrument. A decision from NIH on this proposal is imminent. The subpanel supports this approach to developing neutron activity in the life sciences and firmly believes that neutron research in the life sciences represents a direction that must be developed in the future. However, NCNR has few people who are deeply embedded in the biological community. The latter community has a very different research culture from the physicist-oriented condensed matter and materials communities with which NCNR is familiar. Past experience at synchrotron facilities has

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

shown that the most effective way to culture biological activity is to collaborate with members of this community. Partners on the NIH proposal include a good cross section of some of the best biophysicists in the United States who are active in neutron studies of biomembranes, so this would be an ideal mechanism for development of a biological program. The subpanel believes strongly that this opportunity for collaboration should not be allowed to pass, and if the current proposal fails, alternative funding should be sought immediately. If the proposal is not funded, the NCNR plans to resubmit it as an NIH Research Resource grant. The subpanel suggests that a faster approach might be for NIST management to provide start-up funds for the instrument in order to get biological activities going as quickly as possible, with a Research Resource proposal as a second choice or as a source of operating funds.

User Community

The subpanel reviewed the results of the 1999 Users' Group survey in detail. This user-satisfaction survey was initiated in December 1998, and the final report is dated October 15, 1999. The subpanel had access to the report and also spoke by telephone with the head of the Users' Group, who directed the survey. Users were asked to rate the NCNR in 12 categories on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). The fact that only about 15 percent of users responded points to a high degree of satisfaction. Those who did respond provided generally favorable ratings. The highest rating (4.7) was given to NCNR technical staff. The instrument hardware rating averaged 4.2, while somewhat weaker ratings were given to instrument software (3.7) and data storage and analysis (3.6). The lowest rating (3.2) was given to travel and housing expenses. According to the head of the Users' Group, NCNR has addressed the shortcomings and made notable progress, excepting only the travel and housing issue, for which no ready answer is at hand. Especially noteworthy are improvements in on-site data storage and analysis support.

A major concern of the user community relates to the timing of the pending reactor shutdown for upgrade of the cold source and cooling towers. The community is concerned that the shutdown might coincide with a planned shutdown at the Oak Ridge HFIR. Users have been informed that NCNR management is strongly committed to a summer 2000 start date, which would avoid an overlap with the Oak Ridge shutdown, but it cannot guarantee that this will be possible.

The subpanel notes with some disappointment that the recent attempt to reduce the burden on external reviewers by allowing program proposals for multiyear user projects, as suggested in the previous report, has already been judged ineffective and has therefore been discontinued. It is unclear whether the trial period was of sufficient length to fully evaluate this approach.

Impact of Programs

In fiscal year 1999, the NCNR user community continued to grow. The center supported nearly 1700 research participants who either worked at NCNR or had their name on a paper based on work done at NCNR. These participants came from 23 NIST divisions and offices, 34 U.S. government laboratories, 55 U.S. industrial laboratories, and 105 U.S. universities. Approximately 90 percent of available instrument-days involve outside users, in half of the cases involving direct collaborations on specific experiments. A number of organizations, among them industrial firms, support long-term projects at NCNR as members of participating research teams. Research at NCNR covers a broad spectrum of topics, which are generally at the forefront of current scientific and technological interests. The impact of NCNR is reflected in the more than 350 papers accepted or published in archival journals during fiscal year 1999.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

During last year's review the subpanel was provided information on an extensive citation analysis of peer-reviewed papers, which showed the NCNR impact to be substantially above average for the neutron science field taken as a whole. This year's citation analysis had not been completed at the time of the subpanel's review. The subpanel was assured that the analysis would attempt to arrive at a meaningful comparison of the relative impact of different NCNR research fields, as suggested by the subpanel in its previous report.

The NCNR also hosted a summer school in 1999 on the methods and applications of neutron spectroscopy that was attended by 37 individuals, including 26 graduate students. This workshop, the fifth in what has become an annual event, is judged by the subpanel to be an excellent example of an effective outreach effort. Not only does it add value by helping train the next generation of scientists in the field, but it can also serve the important purpose of broadening the future NCNR user base.

NCNR Resources

Funding sources for Neutron Research are shown in Table 6.6. The NCNR staffing currently includes 85 full-time permanent positions, of which 78 are for technical professionals. There are also 18 nonpermanent and supplemental personnel, such as postdoctoral fellows and part-time workers.

The subpanel again commends NCNR management and staff for their ability to develop instrumental capabilities and science programs within very constrained resources. NCNR management relies on disciplined, conservative approaches to fiscal management and resists excessive dependence on temporary funding from other government agencies or private institutions. This safeguards it against the instabilities that can result from more aggressive and riskier fiscal management styles. NIST senior management is aware of the critical role that NCNR has gained as a national facility and, given the strong support expressed by NIST leadership, the subpanel expects that solutions to financial shortfalls would be found should circumstances ever necessitate it.

The NCNR is the home of the Center for High-Resolution Neutron Scattering (CHRNS), which has been funded by the National Science Foundation for the past 5 years. Renewal of this grant is pending. The subpanel believes that the expansion of user activity that this grant would enable is of critical

TABLE 6.6 Sources of Funding for the NIST Center for Neutron Research (in millions of dollars), FY 1997 to FY 2000

Source of Funding

Fiscal Year

1997 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1998 (actual)

Fiscal Year

1999 (actual)

Fiscal Year

2000 (estimated)

NIST-STRS, excluding Competence

13.7

14.8

14.5

15.0

Competence

0.1

0.1

0.2

0.2

ATP

0.2

0.3

0.3

0.2

OA/NFG/CRADA

1.5

1.9

1.6

1.8

Other Reimbursable

0.2

0.1

0.2

0.2

Total

15.7

17.2

16.8

17.5

Full-time permanent staff (total)a

78

84

85

85

NOTE: Sources of funding are as described in the note accompanying Table 6.1. Totals for the reactor include only normal operation costs. Fuel cycle and upgrade costs, totaling approximately $5.7 million per year, are excluded.

a The number of full-time permanent staff is as of January of that fiscal year.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×

importance to the user community. However, the subpanel also reiterates its conviction that support from other agencies (e.g., for the CHRNS) should in no way diminish NIST's baseline level of support for the NCNR.

The subpanel previously noted that user demand for reflectivity instruments continues to be high, and this level of usage continues to be of concern. The reflectivity effort would be enhanced by the addition of the proposed dedicated biolayer reflectometer-diffractometer currently under consideration for funding by NIH.

The most valuable resource of the NCNR is obviously its high-quality staff. The scientific discoveries, technical achievements, and new measurement and user capabilities offered at the facility are all enabled by the talent and dedication of its staff. Several issues relating to staffing merit attention here.

The high degree of excellence achieved in NCNR reactor operations is a direct function of the experience, competence, and attitude of the operations staff. Since so many are long-term employees, succession planning and hiring take on greater importance with each passing year as more of the staff approach retirement eligibility. Most new hires come from the nuclear Navy and are used to fill positions at the bottom of the reactor operations organizational chart. The low turnover rate of staff means that there is a fairly large pool of experienced personnel who can readily step in and fill the shoes of the older workers now approaching retirement. This helps provide a stable organization with a culture of safety in reactor operations. The most challenging task in a few years will be to ensure that the top management positions at NCNR are filled with persons who have not only the broad-based competence but also the wisdom and vision of the present incumbents.

The subpanel has, in the past, stressed the importance of succession planning and management training for NCNR as a whole. It is apparent that NCNR leadership shares this view and is taking steps to address these issues. The eventual successor to the NCNR director is an especially important issue. In the nearer term, the center may have to deal with the loss of experienced technical staff as professional opportunities open up at some of the Department of Energy's expansion sites, such as the spallation neutron source (SNS) at Oak Ridge.

Previous reports from the subpanel have commented on the relatively modest level of theoretical science activity at NCNR. Although some steps have been taken to strengthen the effort in theory, the subpanel believes that the NCNR science program would benefit from greater interactions with theorists, especially in the condensed matter and complex fluid areas. Additional contacts would enlarge the community of theoretical subject matter experts who could assist in creatively exploring the new scientific opportunities being opened up by instrumental advances at NCNR. As an example of such an outreach mechanism, the subpanel applauds the effort under way by the condensed matter staff to establish an effective visiting program for theorists. Similar staff-initiated steps should be pursued by other parts of the science program.

Good progress continues on facility improvements. Improvements in sound attenuation have been completed in the guide hall. Preparations are under way for the upcoming reactor shutdown, during which the cooling tower, control rods, heavy water, and radiation-monitoring system will be replaced. The new cold source, designed to provide a factor-of-2 increase in flux, will also be installed at that time. Spent-fuel shipments during the year have cleared storage space for at least 5 years of 20-MW operation.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×
Major Observations of the Subpanel

The subpanel presents the following major observations:

  • The NCNR continues to live up to its well-deserved reputation as a world-class neutron science facility. Its demonstrated ability to balance often-conflicting interests of current and future users is exemplary. Its role as a major U.S. scientific user facility has grown substantially in importance during the past year as a result of the permanent shutdown of the HFBR reactor at Brookhaven.

  • The cost-effective manner in which NCNR makes its considerable scientific achievements is noteworthy. However, the tight fiscal management of NCNR necessitated by constrained budgets provides little contingency flexibility. Any decreases in budget would do serious damage to the U.S. neutron science community, given that its dependence on the NCNR stands at an all-time high.

  • The reactor and the cold source have continued to operate at impressive levels of availability. Operational safety matters are receiving strong management attention and support. The decision to extend the scheduled January 2000 shutdown in order to replace bearings in an unexpectedly “sticky” fuel-transfer tool (a non-safety-critical component) attests to a commendable degree of conservatism in decisions concerning reactor operations.

  • Efforts to prepare for the 2004 USNRC license renewal application are on course. The effort has been strengthened significantly with the creation of a relicensing project group headed by the former director of nonpower reactors and decommissioning at the USNRC. The relicensing process gives significant opportunities for public comment. NCNR management should therefore safeguard the openness of its communication channels with the public.

  • Progress during the year in bringing next-generation instruments on line has been steady, although slower in some cases than initially hoped for. The subpanel strongly supports the high priority that NCNR has assigned to instrument development as a way to maintain its capabilities at the cutting edge.

  • The timing of the planned reactor shutdown to connect the new cooling tower and install the new cold neutron source has become a valid concern for the NCNR user community. If work cannot begin before spring 2001, the shutdown would coincide with the scheduled upgrade of the Oak Ridge HFIR facility. This would leave the United States with no operational steady-state neutron sources.

  • Progress toward the development of a neutron science activity in the life sciences is clearly visible. Extensive scientific networking with the biological community will be necessary for NCNR to successfully establish a presence in this area. The subpanel remains supportive of this effort.

  • The NCNR science program would benefit from additional outreach to talented theorists who could stimulate the identification of future scientific opportunities associated with emerging instrumental capabilities at NCNR.

  • Plans for orderly transitions in senior management over the next several years remain on track. NCNR management needs to consider that the loss of experienced technical staff to Department of Energy sites where new or upgraded neutron science facilities are under construction, such as the SNS at Oak Ridge, is a potential difficulty.

Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
×
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×
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Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
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Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
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Suggested Citation:"Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory." National Research Council. 2000. An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories: Fiscal Year 2000. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9979.
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