SEQUOIA Mail-in Program

Fine-Resolution Fermi Chopper Spectrometer

SEQUOIA | BL-17 | SNS

Mail-In Program Overview

Mail-in proposals for SEQUOIA may be submitted at any time and are reviewed as they are received.
Measurements will be allocated time on a first-come/first-served basis up to the maximum amount of mail-in time available for a given cycle.
Mail-in proposals will be evaluated for conflicts with other active proposals at the ORNL neutron scattering facilities.
An experimental status report or a publication reference regarding prior mail-in measurements at SEQUOIA is required before a 2nd mail-in proposal will be approved from the same research group.
The requested beamtime per proposal can be in 8 hour increments up to 24 hours total.
A proposal may request up to 3 samples be measured. Empty sample can measurements count toward the three samples.
Users may specify temperatures between 5 K and 320 K, measurement times per sample, and standard configurations of the instrument (i.e. high flux or high resolution mode for a given incident energy) for each measurement.
Sample cooling and warming times are included in the allotted beamtime.
Monochromatic vanadium measurements for absolute unit normalization are not routinely performed as part of the mail-in program.
Sample cans may be requested to be sent to the users for filling and sealing, or sample cans can be filled by NSD staff at ORNL. Users will be given the choice of several standard sample can sizes and geometries for their measurement.
Mail-in experiments will not be scheduled until sample shipment is arranged with the SEQUOIA team.
All shipment requirements of the general user program also apply to the SEQUOIA mail-in program.
Mail-in proposals must include a single page written proposal. The SEQUOIA mail-in proposal template is available at the bottom of the SEQUOIA mail-in webpage. Proposals are submitted via IPTS. A measurement planning spreadsheet is also available at the bottom of the SEQUOIA mail-in webpage. The measurement plan spreadsheet is submitted to the instrument team upon request after the mail-in proposal is approved.
Users will be told of the approximate date for the measurement. Due to the mail-in nature of the experiment, users will not be guaranteed the ability to modify the experiment plan during the measurement. Mail-in Users will not be given the ability to control the instrument remotely.
Data will be reduced following standard data reduction protocol. Data files to be made available are nxs files and nxspe files (powder averaged, 0.5 degree binning with 0.5% of Ei energy bins). Auto-reduced data will be available during or immediately after the measurement is completed via standard user data access routes.
Submit your proposal using the IPTS system and choosing the “Mail-in” proposal type.