TRIUMF has long been one of the world's leading suppliers of muons for experiments in chemistry, condensed matter physics and other areas of materials science, but it had been difficult in the past for, say, a chemist to initiate a program of µSR research involving `particle physics' technology. In 1990, thanks to generous support from NSERC, TRIUMF, the University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University, the TRIUMF µSR User Facility was created to help more scientists access this versatile tool. Its mandate is to provide the most productive environment possible for doing µSR at TRIUMF, for local experimenters and especially for visitors.
The Facility acquires, improves, and maintains a great variety of equipment with the aim to provide the the widest range of capabilities possible with the greatest interoperability and the least hassle. Facility personnel will set up the magnets, cryostats, counters, and electronic logic for an experiment. They are happy to consult in experiment design and apparatus upgrades.
The facility is populated by a manager, two liaison scientists (physics & chemistry), a technologist, a machinist-technician, and a partial position software engineer. There is an additional partial position for a cryogenics technician which is not filled.