Before your beamtime

There are a few things to consider before you come to the beamline to help make your beamtime a success. You should contact your local contact well in advance of your scheduled time to ensure everything you will need for your experiment is in place.

Key aspects of pre-beamtime preparation

• Sample preparation

• Sample prep is key to the success of X-ray microscopy beamtime, and information about our standard sample types is provided here: sample requirements. Sample types outside of these options should be discussed with your local contact well in advance of your experiment.

• Safety

• ERA: You should fill in and submit your ERA in good time before your experiment begins.
• Every chemical you will bring to the beamline must be on your ERA. This includes standards (whether in pellets or loose) and solvents.
• Lab access: If you need to do any experiments or sample preparation involving wet chemicals, powders, needing a fumehood, pressing pellets or a glovebox (even for storing samples) you will need to tick yes for ‘Do you require lab access?’ and fill in the methods you intend to use in the lab.
  Our offline optical microscope access is available without access to the chemistry lab, but please mention to your local contact that you will need to use the microscope ahead of your experiment.
• In situ experiments: if you plan to do any in situ experiments (including electrical biasing) please include a method statement in your ERA.

• Investigators

• Please be aware you should submit your investigators (within the ERA) as soon as possible to ensure onsite accommodation can be booked, as Ridgeway House can often fill up fast.
• If you need to change who is coming as part of your team or would like to cancel accommodation, please email the user office to let them know.
• If members of your team will not be arriving on the first day, discuss their arrival times with your local contact to ensure they can be trained during working hours (9am-5pm Monday-Friday). If investigators are not trained to operate the beamline by beamline staff then they cannot be left unattended on the beamline.
• The beam runs 24/7 during beamtime so please ensure you have sufficient members of your team to run continuously during this time. Diamond will support up to three people to attend your beamtime.