Here are some key points for the preparation of your proposal:
- Be concise! Reviewers are reading at least 40 proposals, so they want to find out what the key points about your work are. Why is it relevant to the world? Why should they care?
- When justifying the need for synchrotron radiation for your study, be specific about the features of the radiation that your experiment will benefit from:
- intensity → allows better time resolution (likewise fast detectors)
- high energy → studies of high-Z materials, measuring to high Q for PDF
- Time:
- Justify clearly the amount of time you're asking for (read the Justifiaction of beamtime requested section for further details). Notice that:
- A powder diffraction measurement on a sample takes ~1min (for strong scatterers less, for weak more)
- A total scattering measurements can take ~20mins (or more)
- How many measurements and of what type do you want to make on each sample? Do you need to equilibrate your samples at each point?
- Don't forget to include set up time for complex experimental set-ups
- A good structure is the following:
15 Temperatures with 5min equilibration at each point: 15 x 5+1min = 1.5hrs etc. etc. Therefore we request 3 shifts of beamtime.
- Justify clearly the amount of time you're asking for (read the Justifiaction of beamtime requested section for further details). Notice that:
Please keep in mind the following points:
- A radiation of 60keV is actually compressing the Ewald sphere and therefore increases peak overlap in a Powder diffraction instrument.
- A radiation of 60keV is quite useful, to reach a Q range of 30 1/A in order to collect Total Scattering data for PDF analysis.
- A radiation of 60keV interacting less with matter than laboratory sources. This means thicker sample environments can be penetrated.
- The background is usually smoother with synchrotron measurements, showing also small peaks with a better peak-to-background ratio.
- Higher photon flux ensures that measurements can be done faster than in lab, which is important especially for in situ measurements.
- Some special equipment is maybe not available in your lab. Or you can argue, that you need the robot for high-throughput measurements.
What should go in which sections?
a) Justification of beamline requested
What are the particular features of P02.1 which will ensure the success of your experiment? For example you want to measure capillaries with a hot-air blower and P02.1 has exactly the right equipment and capabilities to handle capillaries. We also have a chemistry lab which might be useful for preparing your samples (certainly it's used for loading capillaries)
b) Justification of beamtime requested
You are applying for a certain number of shifts. How did you reach this number? In the following you will find an example of how to estimate the number of shifts you will need:
We plan to study 6 samples at 20K steps over the range from RT to 873 K (N-steps). Each diffraction pattern will be measured for X minutes (usually between 30-300 seconds depending on the scattering power or electronic density of the atoms contained in your sample). We estimate a temperature stabilization time of Y minutes (for example, with the Hot Air Blower this can take between 1-5 minutes depending on the temperature – higher temperatures usually require longer stabilization times). Therefore we request 6 shifts ((X+Y)mins x N-steps x 6 samples = ### hours/ (8 h/shift) = # shifts). We require additional ## hours for set-up installation, sample exchange and contingency.
c) samples & safety related issues
How many samples will you bring? What is the (rough) composition of the samples? Which amount and state of aggreagtion? What are the safety considerations for these compounds? If they are non-toxic, not irritants and not harmful, say so explicitly. It is not enough to say that there are no safety concerns - you should explain and provide the necessary information to demonstrate why there are none.
d) technical information (if applicable)
If you have any specific technical requirements (like using a hot-air blower with a particular temperature range) this should go in here.
