A novel X-ray scattering concept by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab) Advanced Light Source (ALS) is receiving support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in the amount of $2.4 million. The grant was announced last month by the foundation. The lead investigator on the effort will be ALS Division Deputy Zahid Hussain with ALS Director Roger Falcone acting as co-PI on the project.

The Moore Foundation awarded the funding for the development of a new spectrometer for studying materials using X-ray scattering. The citation reads: “In support of research targeting the development of novel x-ray scattering instrumentation for probing quantum materials.”

The grant is part of the Moore Foundation’s Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems (EPiQS) Initiative, which “strives to deepen our understanding of the complex collective behavior electrons exhibit in materials and engineered structures.”

The $2.4 million will be over a 5-year period.

To understand the emergent physical rules that quantum materials follow, one needs powerful tools to manipulate the entangled structures. This newly designed instrument will make far more efficient use of synchrotron X-rays and advance the state of the art in energy resolution. It will also increase the number of material systems that can be studied.

“The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has recognized that the field of quantum materials is of increasing importance for both fundamental science and new technologies,” said ALS Director Falcone. “At the ALS we’re very pleased that the Foundation is supporting the development of a globally unique instrument for inelastic x-ray scattering, which will provide extraordinary new insight into these materials, allow tailoring of functional properties, and support leading scientists from around the nation and the world in their work in this field. I have no doubt that amazing and important discoveries will result from this partnership between Berkeley Lab and the Moore Foundation.”

This research is funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation EPiQS Initiative, Grant 4630 to Berkeley Lab. Support also comes from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science.