Materials preparation and characterization resources at Brookhaven National Laboratory

Research is conducted in the BNL Departments of Biology, Chemistry, Energy and Environment, Nuclear Energy and Physics, and Medical Department. The Reactor Division, the National Synchrotron Light Source Division, and the Instrumentation Division are also closely associated with BNL research programs. The diverse requirements for special materials preparation and characterization within the Laboratory's many basic research programs have fostered a decentralized capacity to perform these tasks. Although the Instrumentation Division and the Metallurgy and Materials Science Division do provide certain basic services, such as thin-film deposition, metallography, and electron microscopy, these activities tend to supplement rather than replace the materials preparation and characterization skills developed in the scientific departments. Consequently, specific capabilities related to special classes of materials can be found throughout the Laboratory. Generally, these capabilities were initially developed for programmatic reasons, but subsequently some have been retained as continuing Laboratory-wide resources available on an informal basis to all scientific staff members. On the other hand, certain activities were specifically established ab initio to fulfill a service function. They are regularly made available to the non-Brookhaven research community by informal arrangements through members of the appropriate department or division on a cost recovery basis, if necessary.