Our group has been at the forefront of developing lab based X-ray diffraction equipment for may years and while our facilities and experties base has expanded greatly, we have a continuing programme of X-ray equipment development.
In the past we have developed high sensitivity digital X-ray imaging devices, including a number of CCD based opto-electronic detectors and a novel phosphor image plate. Reliable commercial versions of these detectors are now available and the group’s attention has turned to the development of specialist X-ray beamlines. These include computer-controlled beamlines for studies of liquid crystal and membrane phase behaviour as a function of temperature, hydrostatic pressure, osmotic pressure and shear. By employing ultra high efficiency toroidal X-ray optics and fast peltier heaters, we now have a lab based beamline capable of following structural evolution during temperature jump triggered phase changes.
You can find more details on each of our X-ray beamlines below.
Beamlines
Overall Beamline Characteristics
- SAXS / WAXS beamline
- Typical d-spacing range 2.5-150Å
- ~5 to 30s required for an adequately resolved image
- Fully automated control and acquisition
Bede Microsource™ Generator
- Low power, high flux X-ray generator
- 80Watts
- Dual port, Copper target with Nickel filters
- Integrated XOS collimating polycapillary optic
- (low divergence ~2mrad) with 100, 200 and 300mm pinholes
Photonic Science Ltd ‘Gemstar’ HS intensified CCD detector
- 75mm input, 40mm intensifier, 1300x1030 pixel CCD
- 100msec readout, capable of ~8 full size images every second
Custom bulit sample environment
- Glass capillary (~1.5mm) and Teflon Spacer Sample holder
- Peltier driven heating/cooling with pt-100 temperature sensor
- Temperature range -20 to 110°C
- <0.5°C calibrated accuracy with read and control accuracy of <0.1°C
- Heating at ~50°C/min, and cooling at ~15°C/min
Hardware interfacing of stepper motors, sensors, peltiers etc through ‘Scorpion’ Electronics to the beamline PC.
In house developed software ‘Axcess’ for full beamline interfacing, image acquisition, and advanced post capture image analysis.
Contact Us
For more information, please contact one of the Group Leaders: