Welcome to the Macromolecular Crystallography Village
Beamline Manuals
Sample holders and Magazines
Main Research Techniques: Macromolecular Crystallography, MAD
Other Life Science beamlines:
I22 Non-Crystalline Diffraction
B23 Circular Dichroism
Tunable Beamlines for Macromolecular Crystallography
I02, I03 and I04 are tunable to enable Multiwavelength Anomalous Diffraction (MAD) experiments to be carried out. All three beamlines are optimised for performance around 0.98 Å to enable MAD or SAD experiments at the Se K-edge. Please see the current beamline specifications table below for the accessible energy ranges for each beamline.
Fixed Wavelength MX Beamline
I04-1 is a fixed wavelength monochromatic beamline optimised for users who do not require tuneable X-rays, such as academic and industrial researchers studying ligand binding and other non-ab-initio structure determination. I04-1 also caters for users doing ab-initio phasing above the Bromine K edge, allowing single anomalous diffraction (SAD) experiments on most commonly used heavy atom derivatives, especially Selenium and Bromine.
Microfocus MX Beamlines
A microfocus macromolecular crystallography beamline, I24, became operational in July 2008 as part of Phase II. With a beamsize of 5-50 microns it enables measurements on small crystals that are not possible on conventional beamlines, due to their small size or mosaicity. It also improves the screening of crystals for optimisation of crystallisation conditions.
From Run 3 2011 new optics (compound refractive lenses) were installed on I04. The beam size is a function of energy/wavelength, varying from 8.0 x 2.0 to 190 x 190 microns. The smallest beamsizes are provided at 7.15 and 13.1 keV with a flux of 2.0x1011 photons/second at 250mA ring current. Full phase I automation capabilities have been retained. Please see the I04 webpages for more details.
Current Beamline Specifications
| Beamline | I02 | I03 | I04 | I04-1 | I24 |
| Standard energy (Å / keV) | 0.98 / 12.66 | 0.98 / 12.7 | 0.98 / 12.66 | 0.92 / 13.53 | 1.0 / 12.4 |
| Flux at standard energy (ph/s) | 1 1012 * | 1.5 1012* | 2.0 1011 ** | 2.5 1011 *** | >1012 **** |
| Wavelength range (Å) | 0.5 - 2.5 | 0.54 - 2.25 | 0.73 - 1.91 | 0.92 (fixed) | 0.62 - 1.77 |
| Energy range (keV) | 5.0 - 25.0 | 5.5 - 23.0 | 6.5 - 17.0 | 13.5 (fixed) | 7.0 - 20.0 |
| Beam size (µm) | 120 x 80 | 70 x 20 | 8.0 x 2.0 - 190 x 190 | 60 x 50 | 8 x 8 - 30 x 50 |
| Detector | ADSC Q315r | Pilatus 6M-F | ADSC Q315r | Pilatus 2M | Pilatus 6M or Rayonix MX300 |
| Time to collect 180o data set (minutes) | 7.5+ | 2 ~ | 7.5 + | 1.5 # | 2 ~ |
| Sample Changer | ACTOR | ACTOR | ACTOR | CATS | CATS |
| No. of pins in dewar | 80 | 80 | 80 | 144 | 144 |
| Sample exchange time (seconds) | 30 | 30 | 30 | 50 | 45 |
| Guide to samples screened/hour (user centering) | 30 | 30 | 30 | 15 |
Values in table updated 8th September 2011.
*in 100 x 100 µm at 250mA
**in 8.0 x 2.0 µm at 250mA
+ 1o per 1 second exposure 180 frames
~ 0.1o per 0.066 second exposure 1800 frames (shutterless)
# 1o per 0.44 second exposure 1800 frames (shutterless)
Remote Access
Diamond now provide remote access beamtime for users of I02, I03, I04 and I04-1. Please contact your local contact well in advance of your scheduled time if you wish to use remote access. Remote access to the beamlines is available at all times with the following guidelines.
You can use the beamline with a mixture of local and remote users during your scheduled experiment. If you have members of your team on-site for their beamtime then there is no restriction on when remote users can utilise the beamlines. The local user team will be responsible for liaising with the remote users and ensuring their samples are placed in the robot dewar. Please bear in mind that if you wish to use the beamlines remotely you will need to be registered on the visit to access your collected data. For the remote users we would recommend that you have either used Diamond MX beamlines before or have an experienced Diamond user assisting you at the remote site. If the on-site members of the team have not used Diamond beamlines I02, I03 or I04 or the ACTOR robot/Unipuck systems before they will need to be on-site before 5pm during week days and before 11am at weekends for training in how to use our systems.
If you wish to use the beamline remotely with no member of your team on-site then at present Diamond staff will reload dewars with shipped Unipucks up till 6pm during weekdays only. You will need to schedule your day accordingly if you wish to use the beamlines completely remotely in this manner. Note that NO exceptions will be made for swapping pucks after this time by Diamond staff.
As a user it is your responsibility to correctly pack and label your pucks (i.e. base plate numbers match puck numbers) and pass this information on to your local contact.
In the long term a number of different modes of remote access will be proposed and developed in conjunction with the user community. If you have specific suggestions on the current set-up and how you would like to see this mode of access develop at Diamond please contact us at remote.access@diamond.ac.uk.