McQueen Lab
Quantum Materials Research Group

Sample Tracking and Data Management

Version: 1.2.1b

Instrumentation in the laboratory has moved to an automated data ingestion and processing system, with corresponding sample tracking. In order for this new system to function as designed, samples must be named with a universal scheme. The total name length, including any extra information and the file extension, must not exceed 165 characters. For a typical sample with 3 parents, ~85 characters are used for the fixed part, so you have ~80 characters for arbitrary extra/additional information. The uniform format for a new sample is:

AAA_BBB_YYYYMMDD_C_III_S_(QQQQQQQQQQ)-EE

you *MUST* then use this sample ID as the base filename for all electronic files generated about that material. You can arbitrarily add additional items to the filename, but only *AFTER* the dash ("-"). Note: Starting materials and other external samples (i.e. those prefixed with "EXT") follow a condensed scheme, described below.

Item	Definition
AAA	Lab Identifier: ML McQueen Laboratory IQM Institute for Quantum Matter PDC PARADIM
BBB	Synthesis tool identifier. This is an organic list that evolves over time, and defines the furnace or equipment used to carry out the reaction. For named furnaces/ovens, this is the name of the furnace/oven without spaces (e.g. GobletOfFire or ThinMan). Other synthesis tools currently on the list: Proper ID Known Aliases Description Box Furnaces INIGIO INIGO, INGO, ININGO KIMA KIMO BINGUS BIGNUS LESTER BUNK PLOKOON PLOKOONR, PLOOKOO, PLOOKLOON, PLOKLOON, PLOLOON, PLO KOON, PLO-KOON DUKIE NAMOND NAMONDSOLIDSTATE PHRYNE PHYRNE, PHRINE, PHYRENE, PHRYNE1 MOZART HEMINGWAY HEMMINGWAY, HEMIGWAY WALLACE POOT BODIE SPIDER SPYDER THOMAS Tube Furnaces OMAR CHAMPION PTF1 PTFI PARTLOW PARLOW WOLBERT WEEBEY WEEBAY, WEYBEY, WEEYBEY, WEE-BEY SLIMCHARLES ZIZEK RUMI JAYSON PTF2 CVT1 ZELDA STRINGER STINGER, SPRINGER PROPJOE PROP-JOE, PROP JOE Unknown Furnaces CHALLENGER KILGORE Ovens MCNULTY BARKSDALE DRYINGOVEN WESTLEY WESLEY Big Furnaces DIONYSUS DIONYSIUS, IQMHTFURNACE, HIGHTBOX CUCUMBER DAIKON KRAKATOA KRACKATOA MEGATRON MYSTERIOUSSTRANGER Signature Tools XENON XEN1, XENONFZ, ZEN1, XFZ, XEFZ HPFZ XEN2 HALOGEN HALO, IQM HALOGEN FURNACE LDFZ TILTLDFZ HPLDFZ ILUM SPS SPS1 INDUCTION IDF1, INDUCTIONFURNACE, INDUCTION FURNACE, INSUCTIONFURNACE PLASMA PLASMAFURNACE MBE1 MBE316GM1 PARADIM MBE Arcmelters NARC NARCO, NEWARCMELT, NEWARCMELTER, NEWARC, NEWARC1, NEWAM, _NewArc_1_ OARC GOBLETOFFIRE, GOBLET, ARCMELTER, ARC MELTER, ARCMELT, OLDARC, GOBLET OF FIRE Wet Lab Items HOTPLATE STIRPLATE MUSTAFAR Heating Mantle 1 SULLUST Heating Mantle 2 ASGUARD Schlenk Line 1 TOKRA Schlenk Line 2 GLOVEBOX WLGB FREEZER BENCH BENCHTOP, VIAL, BEAKER, MORTARPESTLE, MORTARANDPESTLE, MORTAR&PESTLE, BALLOON Computing MARCC ARCH, ROCKFISH HPCC Processing Tools WATERJET WIRESAW DSAW1 DIAMONDSAW1 Laue Room DSAW2 DIAMONDSAW2 PARADIM CIP TORCH MICROM Micromanipulator Characterization Equipment Sometimes Used For Synthesis TGA SDT, DSC, TGADSC, TGADTA DAC FIBSEM Extremely Rare For Making Samples MPMS SQUID PPMS ZEUS, ZUES ELEC1 SISYPHUS Electrometer IQMPPMS TANTALUS Photoconductivity Meter LAUE LTXRD SKYSCAN MICROCT AGXRD RTXRD XRD CAREY UVVIS Things that probably never show up in sample names, but may be in metadata for understanding noise sources CHARYBDIS New PPMS breakout box SCYLLA Old PPMS breakout box If you use something that is not named and not listed above, let me know and we will either name it or add it to the codes list. Yes, computations (when not associated with existing samples) also get their own identifiers. So too does instrument data when not associated with a specific sample (e.g. a calibration or an addenda measurement).
YYYYMMDD	Year, month, day in numerical format, e.g. 20190226 is February 26th, 2019. Note: an older version of this schema used DDMMYYYY; these older formats can be unambiguously identified as when interpreted in the current format will have a month of 19 or 20. This change was made in response to the observation that MM and DD were sometimes transposed.
C	Alphanumeric identifier indicating which sample it is within a given group, tool and day tuple. It runs 1-9, then A-Z. So the 1st sample is "1", the second sample is "2", and the 11th is "B". Should you do more than 35 samples in a single day on a given group, tool, and day tuple, ask me (it will just be continuing to count in base 36 with a second digit).
III	Provenance identifier. If AAA is ML or IQM, this is your JHED ID (e.g. tmcquee2) or "also known as" initials (e.g. I would use TMM). If AAA is PDC, this must be the proposal number.
S	Identifies which portion of a split sample, is left out in the case the sample is not split (set as 0 in the database). One common operation is to "split" a sample into multiple pieces, at some point, e.g. after an FZ growth, and then process them separately. These new derivative samples inherit the original sample ID, but have an "_S" included to indicate which "piece" of the original sample it came from (where S has the same format as C above). A related operation is non-destructive analysis of a piece of the whole sample *without* actually splitting the sample (e.g. Laue along the length of the rod). In this latter case, "_NDS" is instead appended (the first literal characters are "_ND", followed by S as defined above). For both the sample splitting and non-destructive position sensitive analysis, I *highly* encourage you to collect photographs that you annotate with the precise positions of the splits/partial analysis. The online platform we are moving to will let you include this along with all automatically ingested data, and this is going to benefit you =).
(QQQQQQQQQQ)	"Short" ID of prior sample from which this one is derived. For a material made from purchased reagents, this will be an "EXT" label as described below. If derived from more than one prior sample, each "short" ID is appended serially. Assuming the individual is the same for both, the short ID is of the form "BBB_YYYYMMDD_C" + an additional "_S" if it is one part of a split sample. If the prior sample is from a different individual, the short ID is of the form "BBB_YYYYMMDD_C_III" (with the III of the *prior sample* person) + an additional "_S" if a split sample. If the lab identifier is also different, then it should be included as well, i.e. "AAA_BBB_YYYYMMDD_C" (with "_III" and "_S" appended as appropriate). INCLUDE ONLY DIRECT PARENTS, NOT PARENTS OF PARENTS. Some examples are given below.
EE	Extra information. What information is included here is entirely up to you. And it can be left off entirely. The only requirement is that it start with a "-"

Some examples are given here.

Sample ID	Meaning
ML_Dukie_20241009_1_TMM_(EXT_AA_456Y9)_(EXT_SA_123456)-Extra	First sample by me in Dukie on October 9th, made from starting material from Alfa-Aesar with Lot #456Y9 and Sigma-Aldrich with Lot #123456.
PDC_LDFZ_20250225_2_123_(ML_Dukie_20241009_1_TMM)	Second sample done in the LDFZ furnace on February 25th for PARADIM proposal 123, using rods from the sample in the previous entry.
ML_HALO_20190126_1_VJS_(ThinMan_20190124_2)	First sample by veronica in the Halogen floating zone on January 26th, 2019. Derived from prior sample ML_ThinMan_20190124_2_VJS from Veronica.
ML_Challenger_20190130_3_LP_(Kilgore_20190123_2_TMM)_(Frank_20190123_1_1)	Third sample by Lisa in Challenger on January 30th, 2019. Derived from a mixture of prior samples ML_Kilgore_20190123_2_TMM and the first part of ML_Frank_20190123_1_LP
ML_XEN1_20190202_1_LP_(Challenger_20190130_3)	First sample by Lisa in the Xenon FZ on February 2, 2019. Derived from prior sample ML_Challenger_20190130_3_LP (which itself is derived from other prior samples, see previous entry, but that is not listed here).
IQM_XEN1_20190220_1_AG_2	Second piece of the first sample prepared by Ali in the Xenon FZ on 02/20/2019.
PDC_HPFZ_20190220_1_WAP_4_(FatMan_20180218_2_2)	Fourth piece of the first sample prepared by Adam in the HP-FZ on 02/20/2019. Derived from the 2nd piece of the 2nd sample prepared in FatMan on 02/18/2018.
ML_LDFZ_20190220_2_TBe_ND4	Fourth position of Laue of the second sample prepared by Tanya in the LD-FZ on 02/20/2019.
PDC_LDFZ_20190220_3_MS_NDZ	35th position of Laue of the third sample prepared by Mekhola in the LD-FZ on 02/20/2019.
ML_MARCC_20190225_3_JC	Directory name for computational files associated with the third computed sample by Juan started on MARCC on February 25th, 2019.
EXT_FS_123456-Extra	Material from Fisher Scientific, lot #123456.
EXT_COUZINIE_H5R6P3-Extra	Material from JP Courzinie with their sample ID #H5R6P3.
EXT_kkingsb5_JB3456-Extra	Kathryns sample (from Kempa lab) with sample ID #JB3456. When named in this way, Kathryn will have automatic remote access to her data via the web.

Filename	Description
IQM_XEN1_20190220_1_AG_2-15min.raw	A 15-min x-ray scan of sample IQM_XEN1_20022019_1_AG_2.
PDC_HPFZ_20190220_1_WAP_4_(FatMan_20180218_2_2)-MT1T.dat	PPMS data from sample PDC_HPFZ_20190220_1_WAP_4_(FatMan_20180218_2_2) (presumably a M(T) @ 1T, but the naming scheme after the sample ID is entirely up to you).
ML_LDFZ_20190220_2_TBe_ND4.hs2	Laue image of the 4th position of the second sample prepared by Tanya in the LD-FZ on 02/20/2019.

External Samples

To onboard samples produced externally (including starting reagents, samples from collaborators, users, etc.), they are referenced using a condensed scheme, specifically:

EXT_III_C-

you *MUST* then use this sample ID as the base filename for all electronic files generated about that material. You can arbitrarily add additional items to the filename, but only *AFTER* the dash ("-").

Item	Definition
III	Provenance identifier. This is either one of the abbreviations below (for starting reagents), the PIs last name (for samples received from others), or the users JHED ID (for internal to JHU people measuring samples). Proper Name Also Known As Description FS FISHER (Thermo)Fisher Scientific SA SIGMA, ALDRICH Sigma-Aldrich AA ALFA, AESAR Alfa-Aesar CP Cole-Parmer BTC Beantown Chemical NTC NOAH NOAH Technology Corporation APL JHU APL KJL Kurt J. Lesker AMES Ames Laboratory STR STREM STREM Chemicals PC PROCHEM ProChem Inc
C	Lot number (for purchased chemicals; you can use a "." in place of slashes if the lot number has slashes), or arbitrary sample identifier provided by the III individual(s).

What if something is named incorrectly?

Inevitably, sometimes a mistake will be made in sample naming. You should correct the mistake as soon as you notice it and use the corrected form for all future files. Any files you rename will automatically also be picked up.

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