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Galen O'Neil (Fed)

Galen O’Neil is a research physicist in the Quantum Sensors at NIST. He develops high-resolution and high-efficiency single photon sensors using superconducting devices at or below 100 mK, and pioneers new applications with these sensors. He is currently leading the effort to create the most powerful soft x-ray spectrometer for carbon chemistry ever conceived, with the goal of improving our knowledge of carbon catalysis to combat global warming. He has received a Department of Commerce Gold Medal and a Silver Medal.

Research Projects & Interests

Publications

Speciation of cesium in a radiocesium-bearing microparticle emitted from Unit 1 during the Fukushima nuclear accident by XANES spectroscopy using transition edge sensor

Author(s)
Yoshio Takahashi, Shinya Yamada, Hikaru Miura, Yuichi Kurihara, Oki Sekizawa, Kiyofumi Nitta, Tadashi Hashimoto, Masato Tanaka, Minako Kurisu, Shinji Okada, Takaaki Itai, Hiroki Suga, Teruhiko Kashiwabara, Kohei Sakata, Hideyuki Tatsuno, Ryota Hayakawa, Hirotaka Suda, Takaya Ohashi, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Takuma Okumura, Yuto Ichinohe, Tasuku Hayashi, Yuki Imai, Hirofumi Noda, Toru Tamagawa, Tadaaki Isobe, Toshiyuki Azuma, William Doriese, Joel Ullom, Daniel Swetz, Malcolm Durkin, Galen O'Neil, Satoshi Kohjiro, Shogo Higaki, Daisuke Tsumune, Masayoshi Yamamoto, Tomoya Uruga
The chemical state of radiocesium (RCs) was determined using X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) in fluorescence mode and microbeam X-ray fluorescence

Direct detection of the ∼ 8.4 eV internal conversion energy of 229mTh embedded in a superconducting nanowire

Author(s)
Galen O'Neil, Kjeld Beeks, Eric Hudson, David Ray Leibrandt, Marion Mallweger, Sae Woo Nam, Sayan Patra, Gil Porat, Dileep Venkatarama Reddy, Thorsten Schumm, Stephen Schoun, Benedict Seiferle, Christian Schneider, Lars von der Wense, Peter Thirolf, Varun Verma, Jun Ye, Chuankun Zhang
We report on a direct measurement of the ∼ 8.4 eV nuclear excitation energy of the isomeric first excited state 229mTh via the internal conversion (IC) decay

Patents (2018-Present)

X-Ray Spectrometer

X-Ray Spectrometer

NIST Inventors
Kevin L. Silverman , Carl D. Reintsema , Galen O'Neil , Luis Miaja Avila , Daniel Swetz , W.Bertrand (Randy) Doriese , Dan Schmidt , Bradley Alpert , Joseph Fowler , Joel Ullom and Ralph Jimenez
This invention includes: an x-ray plasma source that produces primary x-rays; an x-ray optic that transmits and focuses the primary x-ray onto a sample jet from which fluorescence x-ray are emitted; and a microcalorimeter array detector that measures the energy of the incoming fluorescence x-rays
Created May 22, 2018, Updated October 11, 2023
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