Fan Zhang

Fan Zhang is a Physicist at the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. He specializes in multi-scale materials characterization using synchrotron-based scattering, diffraction, and imaging methods. His current research interests include:

• Additive manufacturing of metals. We use synchrotron-based scattering and diffraction methods to investigate the microstructural and phase evolution of additively manufactured alloys to establish the fundamentally important processing, structure, and behavior relationship.
• Dynamics of complex fluids and advanced functional materials. We have developed a version of X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) in the ultra-small angle regime that is capable of elucidating the equilibrium dynamics of optically opaque, concentrated colloidal suspensions in both aqueous and nonaqueous environments, as well as slow, nonequilibrium dynamics in industrially important advanced functional materials such as self-repairing dental composites.
• Structure and microstructure characterization of advanced materials using scattering methods, ranging from segmented copolymers, nanoparticles, organic-inorganic gels, to alloys.
• Small angle X-ray scattering: including instrumentation, methodology development, algorithm development, and data analysis.

Selected Professional Services

• Member, Neutron Sciences Science Review Committee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2015-2018.
• Member, Small Angle X-ray Scattering Proposal Review Panel, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 2012-2015.
• Lecturer, Beyond Rg Small Angle Scattering Short Course, Advanced Photon Source, 2012, 2015.

Featured Research

• Putting the Heat on an Additive-Manufactured Alloy
• Precipitation Kinetics and Development Pathway of the Most Widely Used Aircraft Alloy
• Animatedly Suspended X-ray Observations
• Unveiling the Secrets of Nanoparticle Haloing