The Institut Laue–Langevin (ILL) is an internationally financed scientific facility, situated on the

Polygone Scientifique The Polygone Scientifique (en: Scientific Polygon) is a neighborhood of the city of Grenoble in France. It includes a significant number of research centers in a presque-isle between Isère and Drac. History Polygon hosts in 1956 the first Fre ...

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

, France. It is one of the world centres for research using

neutron The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons behav ...

s. Founded in 1967 and honouring the

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

Max von Laue Max Theodor Felix von Laue (; 9 October 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. In addition to his scientific endeavors with con ...

and Paul Langevin, the ILL provides one of the most intense neutron sources in the world and the most intense continuous neutron flux in the world in the moderator region: 1.5×10¹⁵ neutrons per second per cm², with a thermal power of typically 58.3 MW. The ILL neutron scattering facilities allow the analysis of the structure of conducting and magnetic materials for future electronic devices, the measurement of stresses in mechanical materials. It also allows investigations into macromolecular assemblies, particularly

protein dynamics Proteins are generally thought to adopt unique structures determined by their amino acid sequences. However, proteins are not strictly static objects, but rather populate ensembles of (sometimes similar) conformations. Transitions between these stat ...

and biomolecular structure. It is a world-renowned centre for nanoscale science.

History

Institut Laue Langevin inside reactor hall

The institute was founded by France and Germany, with the United Kingdom becoming the third major partner in 1973. These partner states provide, through

Research Councils Research funding is a term generally covering any funding for scientific research, in the areas of natural science, technology, and social science. Different methods can be used to disburse funding, but the term often connotes funding obtained thr ...

, the bulk of its funding. Ten other countries have since become partners. Scientists of institutions in the member states may apply to use the ILL facilities, and may invite scientists from other countries to participate. Experimental time is allocated by a scientific council involving ILL users. The use of the facility and travel costs for researchers are paid for by the institute. Commercial use, for which a fee is charged, is not subject to the scientific council review process. Over 750 experiments are completed every year, in fields including

magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particle ...

superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlik ...

, materials engineering, and the study of

liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, an ...

colloid A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a liquid, while others exten ...

s and biological substances such as

proteins Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respondi ...

. The high-flux

research reactor Research reactors are nuclear fission-based nuclear reactors that serve primarily as a neutron source. They are also called non-power reactors, in contrast to power reactors that are used for electricity production, heat generation, or marit ...

produces neutrons through fission in a compact-core fuel element. Neutron moderators cool the neutrons to wavelengths usable experimentally. Neutrons are then directed at a suite of instruments to probe the structure and behaviour of many forms of matter by elastic and inelastic neutron scattering, and to probe the fundamental physical properties of the

. Fission products and gamma rays produced by nuclear reactions in the reactor core are also used by the instrument suite. In 2000 began the introduction of new instruments and instrument upgrades. The first phase has already resulted in a 17-fold gains in performance. The second phase started in 2008: it comprises the building of 5 new instruments, the upgrade of 4 others, and the installation of 3 new neutron guides.

EPN Science Campus

The ILL shares its site, the 'epn science campus', with other institutions including the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Unit for Viral Host Cell Interactions (UVHCI). The French Institut de Biologie Structural (IBS) joined the campus in 2013.

Members

The ILL is governed by its Associates, the founding countries: *France, Germany and United Kingdom in association with its Scientific Member countries (listed below by chronological order of accession): *Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden, Belgium, Slovakia, Poland, Denmark and Slovenia.

Applications research

In 2019, researchers unravelled information about a protein causing progressive diseases. In summer 2016 the Institut Laue–Langevin demonstrated that a molecule called ectoine is used by Halomonas titanicae near the wreck of

RMS Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unit ...

to survive the osmotic pressure that salt water causes on their membranes.

Awards and recognitions

The physicist Duncan Haldane who worked at the institute from 1977 to 1981 received the

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in 2016 with

Michael Kosterlitz John Michael Kosterlitz (born June 22, 1943) is a British-American physicist. He is a professor of physics at Brown University and the son of biochemist Hans Kosterlitz. He was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in physics along with David Thouless ...

and

David J. Thouless David James Thouless (; 21 September 1934 – 6 April 2019) was a British condensed-matter physicist. He was the winner of the 1990 Wolf Prize and a laureate of the 2016 Nobel Prize for physics along with F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Ko ...

for their work on the transitions of topological phases in the material. Rudolf Mossbauer, Nobel Prize in Physics in 1961, succeeded

Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (28 March 1911, in Esslingen am Neckar – 16 December 2000, in Allensbach) was a German physicist. He made contributions to nuclear spectroscopy, coincidence measurement techniques, radioactive tracers for biochemistry and me ...

in 1972 as the director of the institute. The physicist Philippe Nozieres, who worked at the institute from 1972 until his retirement, received the

Wolf Prize The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for ''"achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of natio ...

in 1985, together with Conyers Herring, for their major contributions to the fundamental theory of solids, especially the behaviour of electrons in metals.Physics Today, Herring, Nozieres and Marcus receive Wolf Awards, September 1985
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Techniques

* Neutron diffraction ** Small angle neutron scattering ** Neutron reflectometry * Inelastic neutron scattering ** Neutron triple-axis spectrometry ** Neutron time-of-flight scattering ** Neutron backscattering **

Neutron spin echo Neutron spin echo spectroscopy is an inelastic neutron scattering technique invented by Ferenc Mezei in the 1970s, and developed in collaboration with John Hayter. In recognition of his work and in other areas, Mezei was awarded the first Walt ...

References

Sources

The 2017 ILL annual reportLe Journal du CNRS, printemps 2019: Ces laboratoires qui illuminent l'Europe

External links

*
Institut Laue-Langevin

ILL general presentation film
{{DEFAULTSORT:Institut Laue-Langevin Neutron facilities Physics institutes Research institutes in France Science and technology in Grenoble