ACNS 2024 Tutorials

ACNS Tutorials

Title: Artificial Intelligence for Scattering

Description:

Over the past few years, artificial intelligence, especially machine learning, has had a transformative impact on our society, including significant advancements in neutron scattering and materials science. In our comprehensive full-day tutorial, we aim to explore a wide range of topics, beginning with the fundamentals of machine learning, and extending to its applications in neutron scattering.

Organizers:

Alan Tennant (UT Knoxville), dtennant@utk.edu

Raymond Osborn (ANL), rosborn@anl.gov

Stuart B. Wilkins (BNL), swilkins@bnl.gov  

Mingda Li (MIT), mingda@mit.edu  

Title: High-Resolution Methods for the Investigation of the Dynamics of Soft Matter

Description:

This tutorial is primarily aimed at graduate students, post-docs, and young faculty working on soft matter, interested in the unique capabilities offered by backscattering and neutron spin-echo spectrometers to probe the dynamics of their systems at the nanoscale. The first part of the tutorial will provide the theoretical foundations. The second part will offer a hands-on exercise on a case study covering experiment design, sample preparation, data reduction, and analysis. Brief scientific presentations demonstrating the use of these methods will also be presented.

Organizers:

Norman J. Wagner (University of Delaware)
Minh Phan (University of Delaware and NIST)
Laura Stingaciu (ORNL)
Antonio Faraone (NIST)
Madhusudan Tyagi (UMD and NIST)
Naresh Osti (ORNL)

Title:  Neutron Reflectometry for Probing the Nanoscale Structure of Layered Materials

Description:

A significant portion of the current advances in science and technology involve studies of material systems that are in the form of thin layered films. The nanometer scale structures at the interfaces of these quasi-two-dimensional materials can be of primary importance in determining the key physical and chemical properties of the system. Neutron reflectivity measurements can provide essential information about the nanometer scale structures of such layered thin film materials. Layered systems of interest cover a broad range of fields, including physics, chemistry, biology and materials science. Neutron reflectometry can be a sensitive — and in certain cases a unique — probe of both the chemical and magnetic structure in these materials. This tutorial is intended to provide information about the principles and applications of neutron reflectometry that is both interesting and of practical use to students, post doctoral researchers and early career scientists.

Organizers:

Charles F. Majkrzak (NIST) charles.majkrzak@nist.gov
David Hoogerheide (NIST) david.hoogerheide@nist.gov
Frank Heinrich (Carnegie Mellon University) fheinrich@cmu.edu
Brian Kirby (NIST) brian.kirby@nist.gov
Joseph A. Dura (NIST) joseph.dura@nist.gov
Sushil K. Satija (NIST) sushil.satija@nist.gov
Brian B. Maranville (NIST) brian.maranville@nist.gov

The proposed tutorial on neutron reflectometry would include seven 45 minute to one
hour segments.

Title: Inelastic Neutron Scattering Analysis Software: INSPIRED, SHIVER and Sunny

Description: 

The morning session introduces two ORNL software packages for the analysis and visualization of inelastic neutron scattering (INS) data. The first, INSPIRED, predicts INS spectra rapidly from crystal structures using a neural network, machine learning force fields, and a phonon database. These tools enhance INS data analysis, reducing barriers between experimental and theoretical viewpoints. The second, SHIVER, processes time-of-flight data from single crystal direct geometry experiments, transforming these data into reciprocal space and energy transfer structures and enabling slicing and histogram creation of S(Q, ∆E).  Both packages will be available on analysis.sns.gov. The tutorial includes presentations, user interface demonstrations, and potentially hands-on sessions, aimed at INS users, students, and researchers.

The afternoon session introduces Sunny, an open-source code for modeling atomic scale magnetism with classical and semiclassical techniques (https://github.com/SunnySuite/Sunny.jl). Sunny offers symmetry analysis, ground state finding algorithms, and several approaches to estimating dynamical structure factor intensities, making it an important tool for experiment planning and parameter extraction. The package implements a generalization of Landau-Lifshitz dynamics and linear spin wave theory, enabling it to model a range of quantum phenomena beyond what is possible with existing packages, such as SpinW or McPhase.  Aimed at a broad audience, the tutorial covers model specification, calculations, intensity extraction, and plotting. Participants will leave with the ability to begin modeling their own data and will be encouraged to join the Sunny Slack channel, where they can interact with other users and the development team.

Timeline:

9:00 am – 11:00 am Morning session INSPIRED

11:00 am – 11:20 am Break

11:20 am – 12:20 pm Morning session SHIVER

12:20 pm – 1:45 pm Lunch Break

1:45 pm – 3:15 pm Afternoon Session Sunny

3:15 pm – 3:30 pm Break

3:30 pm – 5:30 pm Afternoon Session Sunny (continued)