The Shared Research Equipment (SHaRE) User Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is one of three Electron Beam Microcharacterization Centers supported by the Scientific User Facilities Division of the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy.  Since its inception in 1977, the SHaRE User Facility has provided access to a suite of advanced instruments and staff scientists for the mm-to-nm-scale characterization of materials in the following focused research areas:

            (1) Transmission (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), including aberration corrected STEM and high-angle annular dark field (HAADF) imaging, EELS, EDS, and orientation imaging microscopy (OIM)

            (2) Atom probe tomography (APT)

            (3) X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometry (XPS)

            (4) Dual-beam FIB and ultramicrotomy specimen preparation & support

NOTE: All nanoindenter proposals should now be submitted via the HTML User Center

Faculty and students of U.S. accredited universities, industrial researchers, and scientists at national laboratories, including ORNL, may access SHaRE’s state-of-the-art characterization facilities by submitting a SHaRE research proposal.  Foreign national participants must be approved through standard DOE clearance procedures.  SHaRE staff will collaborate with users to conduct world-class materials characterization research and to develop new/improved analytical techniques, data analysis, and instrumentation.  Access is granted free of charge, based on the scientific excellence of the proposed research and the ability to publish the scientific results in the open literature.  Access may also be granted for proprietary research on a full-cost recovery basis.

You are invited to submit a short research proposal to access the instruments and capabilities that comprise the SHaRE User Facility.  The required proposal form can be found on this web site.  Proposals are accepted at any time during the year and will be immediately assessed internally for feasibility and then sent for external review.  Proposals are reviewed by 3 members of the SHaRE Proposal Review Committee, each having expertise in one of the focus research areas supported within SHaRE.  Once a proposal is reviewed and accepted (a 4-6 week process), access to the requested SHaRE facilities is granted.

This web site provides a complete listing of all the SHaRE resources (proposal forms, staff/contact information, instruments/capabilities, etc.) necessary to access the SHaRE User Facility at ORNL.