X-ray Diffractometer

This is a sources sought notice. The purpose of this notice is to conduct market research and identify potential sources of commercial products/services that satisfy the Government’s anticipated needs. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large and small businesses. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 334516 – Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing, with a Small Business Size Standard of 1,000 employees. This notice does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quotation (RFQ), Invitation for Bids (IFB), or any commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or award a contract. NIST will not pay for any information submitted in response to this notice. Submission of information is voluntary and will not result in any obligation on the part of the Government. NIST has not yet determined its acquisition strategy for this requirement and encourages interested sources to respond to this Notice. NO SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS EXIST AT THIS TIME Requests for solicitation documents will not receive a response. Respondents shall clearly mark any proprietary or restricted information. In the absence of such markings, NIST will assume unlimited rights to all technical data submitted. BACKGROUND The Chemical Sciences Division is involved in a project seeking to deliver a testbed for heterogeneous catalysts based on emerging X-ray characterization methods as a key component of a current NIST Innovations in Measurement Science (IMS) project. IMS projects are competitively chosen for their potential for high impact on a scientific, engineering, and/or technological challenge that benefits society. They impact stakeholders at NIST, industry, commercial labs, other federal agencies, or academia. The results promise to transform existing scientific, engineering, and/or technological knowledge to enable future capabilities for NIST and significantly advance NIST’s mission. In support of these efforts, an X-ray diffractometer is needed to verify the structure of catalysts and other materials being catalogued prior to simulation and reporting, provide complementary data on catalysts at industrially-relevant reaction conditions, and provide a key reference point relating data from NIST’s testbed to conventional techniques applied to catalysts at internal and external facilities. In short, the diffraction capabilities play a key role in validating and benchmarking the capabilities under development as well as standardizing the data collected. DESCRIPTION OF REQUIREMENT The Contractor shall provide one (1) X-ray diffractometer system that meets the following minimum technical requirements. The X-ray diffractometer shall be capable of powder analysis in reflection or transmission mode, as well as grazing incidence and X-ray reflectivity measurements of thin films. The X-ray diffractometer shall also include a detector with sufficient energy resolution for suppressing fluorescence from transition metals as described below. Hardware and software shall also be provided to operate the X-ray diffractometer system. The Contractor shall deliver and install the instrument, demonstrate performance characteristics meeting requirements, and provide training. Performance Requirements: Source: The diffractometer shall employ an X-ray tube source with, at minimum, 600 W of operational power with an accelerating potential of 40 kV. The X-ray tube source shall use a copper anode. The X-ray tube source shall be cooled with an internal chiller and not require external water circulation. The X-ray tube shall possess a line focus with the short dimension less than 0.05 mm and the long dimension greater than 10 mm. Optical elements: The diffractometer shall employ a variable divergence slit by the source which can automate slit size selection. This variable slit size shall be paired with automated routines to mainta...