Endstation of the SAXS / WAXS beamline

For information and suggestions for writing a strong application for beamtime on the SAXS/WAXS beamline see the Beamtime on this beamline page.

The SAXS/WAXS beamline is a flexible x-ray scattering facility due to the design of the optics and a very flexible endstation and sample stage. Transmission SAXS and vertical dispersion WAXS are the primary roles of the beamline although a bounce-down vertical focusing mirror also permits grazing incidence (GISAXS) experiments. A flexible sample stage is used to support many sample types and sample environments, discussed in detail here.

The beamline utilises an undulator source that provides a very high flux to moderate scattering angles and a good flux at the minimum q limit or 0.0012 inverse Angstrom. Optical alignment is such that large changes of energy are rapid and straightforward allowing changes to be readily made during an experiment. Additional details of the source flux may be found on the SAXS Specifications page. Details of the Q-range accessible for different arrangements of the SAXS camera may also be found on the SAXS Specifications page.

An on-axis video camera allows parallax-free sample viewing and alignment at all times before and during exposure. This enables precise and rapid sample alignment allowing high throughput and small samples. The endstation uses a 1M Pilatus detector for SAXS and a 200k Pilatus detector for WAXS that provide excellent dynamic range, single photon per pixel sensitivity, low noise and fast time resolution (30 and 150 frames per second respectively).

To download a copy of the Beamline User Manual (pdf, 4.85 MB), click here. Please note that this manual may not be up to date due to the current role-out of new scatterBrain software for data collection.

The most recent version of the scatterBrain and SAXS15ID programs may be found on the Data Analysis page here. For more detail instructions for installing SAXS15ID, including a full runtime version (no download of IDL required) see this page.

AreaVision, software used for the sample viewing cameras on the beamline, is available here for windows and linux.

If you have any questions regarding the beamline or experiments on the beamline please contact the beamline staff.

For general information about Small Angle Scattering the canSAS website provides a range of resources and tools.