Multi-capillary rack
A variety of sample environments are available at the beamline. Further sample environments can be accessed via the PETRA pool. Please get in contact if any of these are of interest. Users are also encouraged to use their own sample environments. In this case please contact beamline staff to discuss the opportunities.
Multi-capillary rack
- Fast sample change at room temperature
- Suitable for diffraction as well as total scattering and PDF analysis
- Up to 25 capillaries
- Capillary diameter up to 2 mm
- Compatible with scattering chamber
Scattering chamber
The chamber can be used evacuated or He-flushed to greatly reduce the background scattering. It has an aperture of ±30° with an internal beamstop and the possibility to rotate samples 360°. For single crystals this allows for 3D-XRD/3D-ΔPDF measurements. For capillary type measurements a compatible multi-capillary rack is available. At 100 keV the accessible Qmax is up to 27 Å-1. Dedicated heating devices for flat samples and other kinds of samples are compatible with the chamber.
Displex cryostat
The cold-finger closed-cycle He cryostat provides temperatures of 20 – 350 K in vacuum. It can be combined with either the Eulerian cradle for scanning in q-space with a point detector or a cryochamber for measurement of single crystal total scattering. 360° degree rotation of the sample is possible inside the chamber, which has a large opening for scattering angles up to 30°. The beamstop is located inside the chamber to minimize background scattering. As a radiation shield, a thin Mylar foil is used. When operating on the Displex, custom-made vacuum shield with Kapton window can be used to reduce the background. If Al radiation shield and vacuum shield are used, the minimum temperature is or the order of 10 K.
Displex with Eulerian cradle |
Displex cryostat with cryochamber |
Magnet cryostat
The magnet cryostat can give up to 10 T horizontal field at temperatures of 2 – 300 K in He gas environment (10 mbar). It is dedicated to the investigation of single crystals, pre-aligned on sample holder for scattering on horizontal plane, with access to +/- 10 degrees of scattering angles parallel and perpendicular to the field direction. Four Al windows allow for accurate orientation matrix determination. Because of the high background coming from the Al windows and VTI, an analyser crystal and collimation slits can be adopted to study low intensity (~10-6 of a Bragg peak reflection) signal.
The magnet cryostat installed at P21.1 |
Sketch of the magnet cryostat geometry |
Resistive heating plates (Bach heaters)
Flat plate heaters made out of silicon nitride are available in different sizes and shapes that enable fast heating at up to 100 K s-1 to 1000°C. Both horizontal and vertical geometry can be provided for placement of a solid sample on a hot surface or transmission geometry through a hole / slit in the plate.
Hot gas blowers
Our hot gas blowers reach temperatures up to 800 °C with a heating rate of the order of 100 K s-1. They have a round nozzle with a diameter of 6 mm and operate with pressured air.
Solvothermal capillary reactor
Capillary reactor designed for in situ studies of solvothermal reactions. The reactor consists of a 0.7 mm fused silica capillary connected to a HPLC pump and sealed to withstand pressures up to 250 bar. A hot air blower supplies heating up to 700°C (can be used separately). The setup is contained within plexiglass shielding (splash box) to contain potential chemical spills.
