Updates for the User Community

inputs from the CFN User Office

Photo of Grace Webster

Grace Webster

Greetings from the CFN User Office! We hope that you and your families continue to stay safe and healthy!

The next submission deadline for new proposals and requests for additional time for the September–December 2021 cycle is May 31 (please see details below, under Upcoming Deadlines).

The CFN continues to operate under Phase 2, “Expansion of Limited Operations.” We currently allow a maximum of 16 users on site per day and continue to support user projects remotely by assisting with data analysis and other activities that can be done away from the lab. For more information, contact the User Office at cfnuser@bnl.gov or 631-344-6266.

General Information

  • The User Office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. 
  • The Facility Online Management (FOM) system continues to be unavailable outside the Brookhaven firewall; to schedule a tool, contact the tool manager. If you need to create a new FOM account or experience any other FOM-related issues, contact the User Office.

Users Returning to the CFN

  • Users should call or email their CFN point of contact to get on the user roster and schedule. You must be on the schedule to enter the Brookhaven site and perform work at the CFN.
  • Before returning for the first day of on-site work, users must complete the following steps:
    • Complete the COVID-19 return-to-work training.
    • Watch the CFN resumption-of-operations orientation.
    • Ensure that your CFN training requirements are up to date.
    • On the day(s) you are authorized to enter the Brookhaven site to perform work at the CFN, complete the daily pre-entry health screening.
    • More information on COVID-19 requirements can be found on Brookhaven’s website.
  • After-hours and weekend access for users is suspended while CFN is in limited operations.
  • For your convenience, Brookhaven’s Occupational Medicine Clinic put together a list of COVID-19 testing (rapid and standard PCR) locations across Long Island.

Upcoming Deadlines

  • The next submission deadline for new proposals and requests for additional time for the September–December 2021 cycle is May 31. Please send your submissions through the online CFN Proposal Portal (CPP). CFN partner beamlines at NSLS-II are now identified in the CPP as follows:
    • Complex Materials Scattering SAXS/WAXS beamline at NSLS-II: Beamline 11-BM, under Technique X-ray Scattering
    • Soft Matter Interfaces SAXS/WAXS beamline at NSLS-II: Beamline 12-ID, under Technique X-ray Scattering
    • XPEEM/LEEM Electron Spectro-Microscopy Endstation: Beamline 21-ID-2, under Technique Advanced Spectro Microscopy

If you are requesting these beamlines for the first time, please submit a new proposal; you cannot add these resources on an additional time request if they were not requested when the proposal was initially submitted.

  • The NEW Helios G5 dual-beam scanning electron microscope/focused-ion beam (SEM/FIB) microscope is ready to accept users! For further information on this new resource, please visit the resource website and see the corresponding news story. If you have any questions, please contact tool manager Fernando Camino at fcamino@bnl.gov or 631-344-7606.
Photo of the inside of the Helios G5 dual-beam microscope main chamber enlarge

A view of the inside of the Helios G5 dual-beam microscope main chamber. The system, now available to users of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven Lab, is loaded with a variety of imaging capabilities and analysis detectors.

Events

  • The NSLS-II/CFN Joint Users’ Meeting was held on May 17–20. CFN staff members and users were involved in organizing five workshops:
    • Correlating Structure and Properties in Additively Manufactured Metals through Multi-Modal Characterization Approaches
    • Ultrafast Pump Probe Optical Microscopy Techniques and their Applications in Nanoscience
    • Towards the Next Generation of Photothermal and Near-Field Infrared Nanospectroscopy at the CFN and NSLS-II
    • Machine Learning Augmented X-Ray Scattering and Spectroscopies. Linda Horton, Associate Director of Science for Basic Energy Sciences, attended the meeting and gave an invited overview presentation.
    • NSLS-II and CFN Microscopes 101: Techniques, Applications, and Access

User Science Publications and Highlights

  • Please continue to send us high-resolution copies of publication covers that feature your papers or articles so that we can display them at the CFN.
  • Keep us informed of your awards, honors, and publications. Publicizing your discoveries and professional achievements helps us raise the profile of the CFN, attract top scientists from around the world, and secure ongoing funding, especially during this time of budget uncertainty.

General Reminders

  • Before starting work on your project, ensure that you have submitted a Safety Approval Form (SAF) and received approval. To submit an SAF, log into the CFN Proposal Portal.
  • Send us an email if you have completed or refreshed a training so that we can update your badge access.
  • The following acknowledgement must be used when referencing work performed in whole or in part at the CFN: “This research used resources of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials, which is a U.S. DOE Office of Science Facility, at Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-SC0012704.”

Safety Reminders

  • Access to CFN laboratories is through authorized badge access only. Piggybacking onto someone else’s access is a violation of CFN rules. If you lose access, contact the CFN User Office

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the CFN User Office or any of the CFN staff. We are here to help and ensure you are safe when conducting your work.

On behalf of the entire CFN family, we thank you for your continued support of and engagement with the CFN. We hope to see you all soon!

—Grace Webster
User Program Administrator and Outreach Coordinator

2021-18904  |  INT/EXT  |  Newsroom