Development of a high brilliance laboratory SAXS beamline at NSF BioPACIFIC MIP for high throughput in-situ structural characterization

The development of a high brilliance, high efficiency laboratory based SAXS-WAXS (small and wide-angle x-ray scattering) beamline for high throughput characterization of biopolymers and nanostructures is presented. The instrument, incorporating the most advanced x-ray source and detector technologies, is developed for the BioPACIFIC Materials Innovation Platform (www.biopacificmip.org) for rapid discovery and speedy development of new high-performance materials. A 70keV liquid metal jet x-ray source provides the world’s brightest beam in a laboratory, and a 4 mega-pixel hybrid photon counting detector provides the highest data collection efficiency from weakly scattering samples. The optical design of the instrument features enhanced scatterless beam collimation for parasitic scattering suppression and a fully automated diffracted beam detection module housed inside vacuum. The sample environment provides capabilities for in-situ studies utilizing temperature, flow, and strain. A custom-developed graphical user interface (GUI) has been developed and optimized for rapid measurement turn around as well as versatility to suit a wide range of applications. Preliminary results on rapid characterization of bio-derived polymers and automated cellular structures have demonstrated a performance level comparable to a 2^nd generation synchrotron beamline. Beamtime is available to the broad research community via a rapid access user proposal process.