Estimating the number of shifts for your experiment

Depending on the energy of the absorption edge of interest, a specific optics configuration of the beamline will be required. Please see the Beamline Layout and Specifications page for details of the various configurations. 

If you plan to measure samples at multiple edges, please bear in mind that switching between optics configurations takes ~1hr (longer if switching from Si111 to Si311 or vice versa)

How long it will take to measure your samples largely depends on (i) the composition of the samples and the concentration of the element of interest, (ii) what you are looking to get from the data: i.e. if you want to measure XANES or extended XAFS.

We collect data in Quick EXAFS mode, i.e. we move the monochromator continuously while collecting data, instead of moving it in steps and collecting data at every step. This allows for quick scanning times : the standard time for a single EXAFS scan is between 3 and 5 minutes, depending on the sample. We usually measure a few scans per sample to check reproducibility and average them to have a good signal-to-noise ratio.  The average energy step is 0.3 eV. 

Here are some guidelines for estimating the time / calculating the number of shifts necessary for your experiment: