Overview

This page outlines the beamline provided sample environments. These are summaries, follow the links for more detailed information, where applicable.

Beamline Configurations

In-Air vs. In-Vacuum

Sample environments will either be compatible with “In-Air” or “Vacuum” beamline conditions (outlined below). These are colour coded based on compatibility for reference throughout this page. Changing between in-air and vacuum beamline configurations takes approximately two (2) hours and can only be done by beamline staff.

Open	In-Air q-range (0.0015 - 3 Å-1) optical breadboard mounting table Pros: flexible, compatible with all kinds of samples Cons: higher background than vacuum, background scales with the size of air gap
Open	In-Vacuum q-range (0.0015 - ~5 Å-1) approximately 1 m^3 chamber size ~10 - 15 minutes needed to come down to pressure when changing samples Pros: Very low background Cons: samples must be vacuum stable, compatible with a more limited range of beamline supported sample environments

In-Air

In-Air Static Ambient Temperature Sample Environments

IMPORTANT NOTE: The outer form factor of the 3D printed capillary mount, and 40-hole plates allows them to be interchangeable on the same holder. YOU CAN USE BOTH!

Open	Capillary mount up to 20 capillaries Fits 80 mm length, 1.5 mm OD, 0.01 mm wall thickness Quartz or Special Glass capillaries More information about capillaries here
Open	Steel Plates 40-hole laser-cut steel plates 5 x 5 mm hole size 0.7 or 2.0 mm thickness More information about steel plates here
Open	96-well plates 80 microlitres minimum volume per well Requires strongly scattering samples More information about 96-well plates here

In-Air Temperature Controlled Environments

Open	Temperature-controlled multifunction stage Compatible with capillaries, steel plates, and 96-well plates Temperature range 10 - 70 ºC Pros: multiple sample formats Cons: High background from airgap and Kapton windows
Open	Temperature-controlled capillary stage Holds 35 capillaries per rack Temperature range 10 - 70 ºC Pros: better background compared to multifunction stage Cons: limited field-of-view in capillaries (only the centre is visible)
Open	Linkam stage(s) Linkam HFSX350 (List this for capillaries or grazing-incidence samples) Suitable for capillaries Holds up to 3 capillaries at a time Temperature range -195 - 350 ºC Linkam THMS600 (List this for solid samples) Suitable for solid samples Temperature range -195 - 600 ºC can be flushed with various gases (e.g. dry air, N2) Pros: Excellent temperature control Cons: Limited number of samples at one time

In-Air Grazing-Incidence

Look here for more information on grazing-incidence SAXS/WAXS

Open	3-Axis Goniometer 3-axis goniometer is used to align samples for GIS(W)AXS Ambient temperature stage is ~20 mm (beam direction) by ~80 mm (lateral dimension) so multiple samples can be loaded in groups (e.g. 8 samples at a time) The Linkam stage can be added for temperature control at the cost of running one or two samples at a time
Open	Solid-liquid interface add-on Attaches to top of 3-axis goniometer Available in PMMA (shown) allowing for electrochemistry, or Aluminium with Kapton windows (not shown) Temperature control by fluid channels in stage 10 - 70 ºC Accommodates samples to maximum 15 mm in the direction of the X-ray beam 40 mm lateral sample area length 18 - 20 keV X-rays are essential for adequate transmission

In-Air Mechanical Testing

Open	Mechanical Testing Stage In situ measurement under tensile or compressive strain High-capacity stepper motor driven linear stage Fitted load cell and grips of various types Load cell capacity of 300N

In-Air Multi Coin-Cell Holder

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Multi Coin-Cell Holder Holder for battery “coin-cells” Holds up to eight (8) coin-cells Temperature control by fluid channels in stage 10 - 70 ºC Independent electrical contacts for each holder IMPORTANT NOTE: we do not provide coin-cells or potentiometer tester Users are encouraged to bring their own tester equipment for monitoring electrical cycling throughout in-operando experiments

In-Air Cetoni

IMPORTANT NOTE: All experiments involving solvent mixing, fluids under flow, biologically based samples, etc. MUST first consider applying to the BioSAXS beamline. Applications to SAXS/WAXS will only be considered where technical capabilities available at SAXS/WAXS and unavailable at BioSAXS are required e.g. the extended 5 - 20 keV energy range at SAXS/WAXS compared to 8 - 15 keV available at BioSAXS.

In-Air User-Supplied Environments

IMPORTANT NOTE: You should discuss any custom sample environment with beamline staff and attach diagrams/images of proposed setups with as much detail as possible to your proposal and experiment authorisation (EA). Beamline staff reserve the right to mark any proposal that does not meet these requirements as infeasible (meaning you will not be allocated time). You can contact beamline staff about your setup through the email address as-saxswaxs@ansto.gov.au

Other important aspects for custom In-Air setups:

• Remember that a key aspect of many User-provided sample environments is electrical safety. Please ensure all electrical equipment has current testing and tagging prior to bringing it on site. We cannot provide testing and tagging for you.

• Take care with any other safety and reliability factors, such as pressure ratings/certification of components and systems, leak and spill containment, preventing of mechanical collision with beamline equipment.

• The standard mounting equipment on the beamline uses M6 x 1.0 mm pitch screws, at 25.0mm spacing. Make sure you have the right hole spacings and/or adapter plates to mount your equipment on the sample table. We often use Newport X48 rail and carriers - part numbers are: rail X48-0.5, carriers either M-CXL48-80 or M-CXL48-50. For further information, see 48-mm-aluminum-four-sided-optical-rails

• Various equipment available to be supplied by the SAXS/WAXS beamline for In-Air custom setups include:

  • Two syringe pumps, beamline controlled and automatable. Accommodates 1 mL to 50mL disposable syringes.

  • Temperature sensor (K-type thermocouple, temperature displayed on monitors in cabin and hutch, and temperature is logged automatically for each SAXS exposure)

  • Sample table typically has a 300 x 450 mm metric breadboard (M6 holes at 25 x 25 mm pitch). This can be extended laterally either side (inboard or outboard) if more space is needed.

  • Peristaltic pump, with single and 8-channel pump head (Masterflex)

In-Vacuum

In-Vacuum Static Sample Environments

Open Open	Steel Plates Compatible with same steel plates at In-Air setups 40-hole laser-cut steel plates 5 x 5 mm hole size 0.7 or 2.0 mm thickness Additional 3D printed option allowing greater maximum measured q values -hole 3D printed plates 5 x 5 mm hole size 2.0 mm thickness More information about steel and 3D printed plates here
Open	Fibres / self-supporting films *** Approximately 10 mm gap for fibre(s) to span Four fibres/fibre bundles per metal holder, multiple holders can be loaded at the same time Tip: mount fibres/fibre bundles nearer to the back of the holder to minimise shadowing from the aluminium holder   *** a way to analyse flexible self-supporting films at low angles, that are not flat enough to measure with grazing incidence methods which require very flat, smooth samples.
Open	Rotation stage 360-degree rotation High-precision (~0.1 degree) rotation Compatible with Linkam temperature stage Useful for highly anisotropic materials or single crystals

In-Vacuum Temperature Controlled Environments

Open	Linkam Linkam HFSX350 Suitable for solid samples Temperature range -195 - 350 ºC

In-Vacuum Grazing-Incidence

Look here for more information on grazing-incidence SAXS/WAXS

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Hexapod Ambient temperature stage is 20 mm (beam direction) by ~80 mm (lateral dimension) so multiple samples can be loaded in groups (e.g. 8 samples at a time per line) Very low background in vacuum leads to good quality data. For this reason, in vacuum is our preferred method for running ex situ GIS(W)AXS experiments if samples are compatible with vacuum The Linkam stage can be added for temperature control at the cost of running one or two samples at a time (up to 280 degrees C).

In-Vacuum User-Supplied Environments

IMPORTANT NOTE: You should discuss any custom sample environment with beamline staff and attach diagrams/images of proposed setups with as much detail as possible to your proposal and experiment authorisation (EA). Beamline staff reserve the right to mark any proposal that does not meet these requirements as infeasible (meaning you will not be allocated time). You can contact beamline staff about your setup through the email address as-saxswaxs@ansto.gov.au

Other important aspects for custom Vacuum setups:

• Remember that a key aspect of many User-provided sample environments is electrical safety. Please ensure all electrical equipment has current testing and tagging prior to bringing it on site. We cannot provide testing and tagging for you.

• Take care with any other safety and reliability factors, such as pressure ratings/certification of components and systems, leak and spill containment, preventing of mechanical collision with beamline equipment.

• if you need to connect to equipment via electrical feedthroughs. the sample vacuum chamber has several spare male-male Dsub 25 feedthroughs available. Please remember if you are doing wiring to allow for the mirroring of pin numbering that occurs for this type of connector (i.e. pin 1 connects to pin 13, 2 to 12 …13 to 1 etc.).

• The standard mounting equipment on the beamline uses M6 x 1.0 mm pitch screws, at 25.0mm spacing. Make sure you have the right hole spacings and/or adapter plates to mount your equipment on the linear stages or hexapod.
  
  

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