CDT students visit Diamond

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The CDT first and second year students visited the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories (RAL) recently to gain an appreciation of the characterisation techniques that are available at large central facilities. 

We travelled down to the Oxford area the previous evening and stayed at The Cosener's House in Abingdon which is an impressive guest house maintained by the Science and Technology Facilities Research (STFC) council - although they did lose our reservation! Located within the original grounds of Abingdon Abbey, the house takes its name from the Cuisinier or Kitchener, the person at the Abbey who was responsible for the provision of food. 

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Arriving at the RAL the group were shown round the Diamond synchrotron X-ray facilities in the morning and the ISIS neutron facility in the afternoon. The basics of a third generation synchrotron were first explained together with the science this enabled and we were able to see a beam line in action and talk to researchers who were running an experiment to probe magnetic ordering. 

Visiting ISIS in the afternoon, the basics of neutron scattering were described in an introductory lecture and this was followed by a tour of the facilities required to produce neutrons and several of the end stations where various instruments - including reflectivity, small angle scattering and refraction - were explained. The visit ended at around 4:00pm and we returned by coach to Manchester. 

Tom Thomson