David Baxter

David Baxter is a professor in and chair of the Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. Baxter’s research is focused in the area of neutron scattering, with an emphasis on the development of new neutron instrumentation and the application of that instrumentation to important problems in materials research.

The instrumentation work is split between the development of novel neutron moderator designs and materials (in collaboration with scientists at several of the leading neutron facilities in the World), and a project devoted to instrumentation that exploits manipulation of the neutron spin to enhance resolution without sacrificing intensity and to provide novel probes of magnetic structure and dynamics in materials (in collaboration with Roger Pynn at IU and Bill Hamilton at ORNL). Over the next several years, these techniques will be used to investigate the structure of fluids in confined geometries and hierarchical materials such as complex fluids, geological materials and components produced by Additive Manufacturing.

The work on moderator designs and materials has also led to Baxter’s participation in an international effort to measure the rate of neutron-antineutron oscillations using free neutrons.

Areas of Expertise

Condensed matter physics.