P02.1 Powder Diffraction and Total Scattering Beamline

The Powder Diffraction and Total Scattering Beamline, P02.1, is dedicated to study of the atomic scale structure of polycrystalline materials, both in terms of long-range periodic order – by Bragg diffraction – and local structural features, using total scattering and X-ray Pair Distribution Function (PDF) analysis.  We support users from a wide range of fields including chemistry, material science, solid state physics and engineering.

P02.1 is a side station of the P02 beamline, operating simultaneously and independently of the mainline station (P02.2 – Extreme Conditions). Simultaneous operation is achieved by the beamline having a fixed high energy of 60 keV (λ ~ 0.207 A), which makes the beamline well suited for studies of

  • Studies of high-Z containing polycrystalline samples
  • Stress-strain measurements
  • In situ or operando studies of chemical reactions, including crystallisation, catalysis and battery cells
  • Investigation of nanostructured or amorphous materials

The beamline provides an unfocussed beam the size of which may be varied from ~0.2×0.2 mm2 to 1.0×1.0 mm2. A Perkin Elmer XRD1621 area detector mounted on a long translation stage is available for data collection. At the longest sample to detector distances (SDD) of about 2.7 m standard powder (Bragg) diffraction suitable for structure solution and Rietveld refinement may be measured. At the minimum SDD (approx. 0.2 m) total scattering data for PDF analysis may be obtained.

Beamline layout of P02.1

A sketch layout of beamline P02.1