Updates for the User Community

inputs from the CFN User Office

May 23, 2022

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

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has transitioned to normal operations with telework starting March 14. We still allow only a maximum of 16 external 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, 631-344-6266.

General Information

The User Office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday.

The Facility Online Manager (FOM) website continues to be unavailable outside the BNL firewall. To access FOM, you need BNL’s Virtual Private Network (VPN) and DUO Two Factor Authentication. To apply, submit an account request form. Once you have your BNL domain account, you can follow the instructions on how to use VPN. 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

For physical onsite access to work at CFN, external users must continue to be on the CFN roster for the days that they are scheduled to be onsite. Please email or call your CFN host or point of contact to schedule and confirm your day on the schedule. If you are not sure who your host or point of contact is, contact the User Office at cfnuser@bnl.gov. If you are not on the roster and need to pick up a new badge, the Guest, User & Visitor (GUV) Center will send you home.

COVID-19 VACCINATION REQUIREMENT FOR ALL GUESTS AND USERS: All guests and users accessing the BNL site will be required to provide proof of vaccination or proof of exemption from the vaccine requirement from your home institution.

On May 12, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed the Community Level of COVID-19 in Suffolk County from "Medium" to "High." As a result of this change—and in line with BNL’s workplace safety and re-entry plan (PDF, VPN may be required)—the Lab is instituting additional controls in the following areas, effective immediately:

• Face coverings are required on the Brookhaven Lab site and within all Lab buildings, regardless of a person's vaccination status.
• Face coverings may be removed only when in office spaces with floor-to-ceiling walls and fully closed doors. They may also be removed by individuals outdoors, as long as social distancing (greater than six feet) is maintained.
• Everyone on site must also maintain six feet of distance from co-workers, except when alone in an area separated by floor-to-ceiling walls with the door closed, or during intermittent eating and drinking.
• When the nature of the physical work requires individuals to be within six feet to conduct the work safely, appropriate work planning and face coverings are required.

Before starting your experiment at CFN, users must complete the following steps:

Registration: Every experimenter listed on the proposal, participating onsite or remotely, must have a valid BNL appointment. To obtain or renew a guest appointment, go to https://guest.bnl.gov. Users who mail in or receive samples from CFN must also have a valid guest appointment.

Safety Approval Form (SAF): All projects must have an approved Safety Approval Form. Onsite or remote work cannot start until a SAF has been submitted and approved. Note that failure to submit a SAF on time can result in a delay or cancellation of your experiment. If you are allocated beamtime at one of CFN's Partner User Beamlines (11-BM, 12-ID, 21-ID), select NSLS-II as the user facility when creating the SAF. If you are allocated time for both beamlines and CFN tools, you will have to create two SAFs (one each for NSLS-II and CFN).

Training: All experimenters must complete online training prior to a scheduled experiment. List of training requirements 

Upcoming Deadlines

The next submission deadline for new proposals and requests for additional time for the September to December 2022 cycle is May 31. Please send your submissions through the CFN Proposal Portal.

The upcoming special issue of Nanotechnology—which will focus on the DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs)—has a new deadline for submissions: Dec 31, 2022. This will give staff and users more time to prepare manuscripts amid the ongoing pandemic.

• The new website for the special issue is here. Two manuscripts representing CFN research have been published. Congratulations to the authors and we look forward to more exciting works rolling in!
• CFN has done a great job of including staff and users in this effort to promote the science being performed at the DOE Nanoscale Science Research Centers (NSRCs). Thanks to Stan Wong, Deyu Lu, and everyone else who has been involved in this effort!

New Tools

This new tool is installed and ready to accept users!

• The motorized stacker for 2D heterostructures is a robotic motion system that precisely handles stamp-supported flakes and substrates for the stacking procedure used to fabricate heterostructures. A hexapod provides six-degrees-of-freedom control of the stamp motion, enabling arbitrarily complex motion in the approach, pressing, and detachment steps. The substrate motion stage can drive to flakes of interest and can rotate in order to fabricate layered moiré heterostructures. Integrated heaters and a cooling loop regulate the stamp/sample temperature. For more information, contact Suji Park at 631-344-5047, email: spark@bnl.gov.

User Science Publications and Highlights

Thank you for continuing 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.

The following acknowledgement must be used in publications when referencing work performed in whole or in part at the CFN: “This research used resources of the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), which is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility, at Brookhaven National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-SC0012704.” Please include the research contribution/facility supported (e.g., "resource" in the standard acknowledgment can be replaced with the CFN facility(ies) used).

General Reminders

Send us an email if you have completed or refreshed a training so that we can update your badge access.

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

2022-20610  |  INT/EXT  |  Newsroom