Beamtime Top Tips

Dr Claire Pizzey, Deputy Head of Industrial Liaison

Claire Pizzey is Deputy Head of the Industrial Liaison group, taking specific responsibility for X-ray scattering experiments with or on behalf of industrial partners at Diamond. She works closely with the other members of Industrial Liaison team to provide a multi-disciplinary approach to solving real-world problems.

Claire has been a synchrotron user for more years than she will admit to. In her time at Diamond she has also been a local contact on two beamlines and participated in user experiments on 16 of Diamond's beamlines. Claire has put together a list of tips to help you get the most out of your beamtime at Diamond.

If you have any top tips that you would like to share, we'd love to hear them. Please tweet us @DiamondILO or e-mail us at [email protected].

Talk to your local contact in advance. They are friendly, approachable people who know the instruments inside out and will be able to help suggest ways to optimise your experiment and collect the best data possible but only if they know what you want to do. Let them help you!

Plan carefully. Beamtime is precious and limited so it’s best to plan as much as possible before the experiment starts. Create lists of samples, use a sample coding system and populate the spreadsheet before the experiment.

Create a priority list. Beamtime is fast paced and it’s easy to get carried away exploring new and interesting features of your samples. Making a priority list before the experiment starts is a good way to make sure you collect all the data you originally planned and don’t miss out those key calibration measurements. They may not be as exciting as your samples, but they are essential.

Consider who will be doing the data analysis. Make sure that they are involved in the project and that they help complete the lab-book or online records. If they will not be present for the experiment, make sure you make a note of all the key instrument parameters. It will save a lot of time later…

Plan shift working. For longer experiments, you will need a team of people. To make sure that everyone gets enough rest, make a timetable of when each member of the team will be needed on the beamline. This will help to make sure that key team members will be around at sample or set up changes and that less experienced team members have support.

Bring extra samples. Sometimes unexpected things happen on beamtime; perhaps some of your samples take less time to measure than you planned or simply don’t show what you are expecting. Give yourself a chance to make the most of that precious beamtime.

Teach your team members how to prepare the samples. You don’t want to go for dinner or a rest and find that everything stopped while you were gone.

Bring a little lab/tool kit with you. If your experiment will only work if you twist a dial three turns with a specific size of screwdriver, please bring one with you. We’ve got lots of tools and equipment in our peripheral labs. The Experimental Hall Coordinators are very resourceful people who can find most things but if you know you will need it, save yourself some time and bring it with you.

Don’t forget the hard drive. You’ve spent all that time and effort to collect your data – don’t forget to take it home with you.

Caffeine and sugar are key beamtime tools. A well timed chocolate bar and cup of coffee can motivate your team to push on through the early hours or run that extra sample. Never underestimate the power of bribery – I’ve yet to meet the synchrotron scientist who refuses the offer of a chocolate bar…

When I trained, synchrotrons were far less reliable than they are now so from hard experience, my tip is to always measure the calibrants first. That way if something unexpected happens to affect your experiment, you’ll be able to use all the data you collected until that point. I’m also still a believer in the paper lab book!