Roadmap for Photoelectron Spectroscopy
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Roadmap for Photoelectron Spectroscopy Prepared on behalf of EPSRC by David Payne, Imperial College London Preface This roadmap has been prepared in consultation with the community over the last few years, during which time there have been a number of significant developments that have either directly or indirectly affected the PES community. These include the recently announced EPSRC Mid-Range Facility for XPS at the Research Complex at Harwell (HarwellXPS), as well new equipment being acquired as part of the Sir Henry Royce Institute. Whilst the conclusions from this exercise, and the recommendations remain unchanged, an exercise is now underway to capture some of the impacts of these changes. It is planned for an updated roadmap to become available in the next 6 months. 2 Contents page 1. Executive Summary...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................3 2. Key Findings and Recommendations...................................................................................................................................................................................................4 3. Introduction........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6 4. Context.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................7 5. Current UK Capability..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................10 6. International Competitiveness.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................13 7. User Landscape......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................14 8. Future Needs..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................16 9. Town Hall Meeting............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................18 10. Summary and Outlook...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................21 11. Working Group...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................22 12. Further Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................................................................................................................22 3 1. Executive Summary The aim of this exercise is to produce a picture of the current photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) landscape within the UK research sector, and to map out the potential future direction of PES in the UK for the next 5 years. This has been achieved through a series of national surveys as well as a Town Hall meeting held in Birmingham in 2016, as well as numerous discussions with key stakeholders in the community. The results of these consultation exercises were collated and analysed by a working group (see end of document for membership). The results have been presented to EPSRC and reviewed by the EPSRC Capital Infrastructure Strategic Advisory Team for dissemination to the UK research base. Overall we have had evidence and support from 150 users of PES in the UK. A “Current Capability” survey captured information on 42 current photoelectron spectroscopy instruments in the UK. The “Future Developments” survey captured information from 79 people, with another 30 people attending the Town Hall meeting. Overall, the information provided has allowed this roadmap to develop, with a series of recommendations made on the basis of this evidence. It is important to stress, that whilst this roadmap was completed for the EPSRC’s capital equipment road-mapping exercise, its contents are owned by the PES community, and for the entire PES community. We invite anyone who missed the opportunity to engage in the preparation of this document, to email the Chair of the roadmap working group. 4 2. Key Findings and Recommendations 2.1 Key Findings • The field of PES research in the UK is strong, and can be considered second only to the USA (when comparing the field-weighted citation index). • To maintain this international lead, it is critical to upgrade or replace a number of out-of- date instruments, and invest in the latest technologies for future characterisation and research. • The community recognises the need maintain a strong base of XPS instruments for traditional measurements, as well as to ensure ready availability to more specialist instruments for state-of-the-art advanced photoemission spectroscopy experiments. 5 2.2 Recommendations As this is a capital infrastructure roadmap it is important to stress that these recommendations should not stray beyond the remit of the exercise,1 but it has become apparent from the evidence collected from the PES community, that apart from refreshing and upgrading the infrastructure, the requirements of increased networking opportunities, coupled to dedicated training in PES is crucial in underpinning the core of the discipline. It is therefore on the evidence collected through the surveys, at the Town Hall meeting, as well as consultations with others in the UK PES community that this series of recommendations are based. They focus on three aspects. Networking, Infrastructure and Training. We believe that by investing, as a community, in these three areas, we will not only maintain the UK’s international standing in PES, but strengthen its competitiveness considerably. Strengthening the PES community. A new UK network should be created and be fully inclusive of all researchers who utilise the technique. We would seek to create a national network (based similarly on the recently funded network grants in terahertz science2 and infrared and Raman spectroscopy).3 We would estimate the cost of this to be ~£0.5m. In addition, there was wide-spread acknowledgement from community members that the diverse research activities being performed utilising photoelectron- based spectroscopies would benefit from more cohesion and interaction across the community. Investment in the core discipline. It is clear that photoelectron spectroscopy in the UK is a very strong, internationally competitive research area, which needs to be maintained and strengthened by significant capital investment. It is the recommendation that funding be sought to support the replacement of old spectrometers, and enable new spectrometers to be acquired by institutions that currently lack the equipment, but have the expertise to be able to successfully operate and maintain spectrometers. We recommend ~£10m for the acquisition of new, modern XPS instruments to replace older equipment. This would expect to deliver 15-20 new spectrometers. We also recommend ~£20m for the acquisition of instruments to perform cutting-edge PES experiments. This latter investment will ensure that the UK (at a minimum) maintains its position close to the USA, but would also provide the opportunity for the UK to become the world-leader in photoelectron spectroscopy over the next 5-10 years. Creating the PES leaders of the future. The long-term future of the technique is critically dependent on the pipeline of researchers. We recommend that the community addresses the need for PhD training in the area “Photoelectron Spectroscopy”, and proposes mechanisms to promote this. We would like to add that highly creative suggestions to PhD training whether through funders or via inter- university cooperation should be explored. In addition we suggest that funders promote PES either through specific EPSRC fellowship schemes (preferentially post-doctoral and early career stage), or through supported applications to the Royal Society, or Royal Academy of Engineering. 1 https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/research/ourportfolio/themes/researchinfrastructure/strategy/equipmentroadmaps/ 2 TERANET: An EPSRC Network for UK researchers in terahertz science and technology. http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/M00306X/1