The small angle scattering beamline X33 at EMBL Hamburg

Beamline characteristics

The X33 beamline is located at the D-Fan in the HASYLAB's experimental hall in building 25. The source of the D-fan is a bending magnet from which the emitted synchrotron radiation is guided to different experimental stations.

The beamline is dedicated to small angle scattering of biological macromolecules, especially to protein and nucleic acids solutions. Scattering experiments on other biological materials such as lipids, on microemulsions and other nanostructured systems are also performed. Red light setup for light-sensitive samples is available.

Optics

Source	Bending Magnet
Monochromator	Horizontal focusing triangular Si (111) asymmetric cut 7°
Mirror	Rhodium coated flat mirror on Zerodur substrate with gravimetrical bending
Beam size at the detector	2 x 0.6 mm²
Wavelength	0.15 nm
Flux at sample	5 x 10¹¹ ph/s/100mA
Sample to detector distances	Standard: 2.7 m (other distances possible)
Resolution SAXS @ 2.7 m	From s = 0.06 nm^-1 to 6 nm^-1
Resolution WAXS^*	From s = 3.8 nm^-1 to 17.5 nm^-1

The momentum transfer s = 4π sin(θ)/λ, where 2θ is the scattering angle and λ = 0.15 nm is the X-ray wavelength.
X33-Beamline Schematic (not to scale)

PS - Primary Slits
SS - Secondary Slits
BM - Beam Monitor

Sample stage

Vacuum cell	30 μl volume, automated filling and rinsing; temperature range: 7°C to 55°C (up to 70°C for a short time)
Small automated sample changer	8 samples (30-200 μl) 3 buffers (1.5 ml)
Large automated sample changer	2 x 96 samples (90-200 μl) 2 x 24 buffers (1.5 ml)

Detectors

2D Photon counting Pilatus 1M-W pixel X-ray detector	0.172 mm pixel size, 67 x 420 mm² useful area, 3 ms frame rate.
2D Photon counting Pilatus 300K-W pixel X-ray detector for WAXS^*	0.172 mm pixel size, 33.5 x 254 mm² useful area

Data acquisition: CanOpen fieldbus system.
^*The WAXS setup is typically used only on samples with concentration higher than 10 mg/ml.

References

Roessle, M.W., Klaering, R., Ristau, U., Robrahn, B. Jahn, D., Gehrmann, T., Konarev, P. V., Round, A., Fiedler, S., Hermes, S. & Svergun, D. I. (2007). Upgrade of the Small Angle X-ray scattering Beamline X33 at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Hamburg. J. Appl. Crystallogr., 40, s190-s194.

Last modified: March 21, 2012