3D-printed sheet jet for stable megahertz liquid sample delivery at X-ray free-electron lasers
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- Uppsala Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Cell and Molecular Biology, Lab. of Molecular Biophysics
- European XFEL, Schenefeld (Germany)
- Uppsala Univ. (Sweden)
- Univ. of Gothenburg (Sweden)
- Univ. of Gothenburg (Sweden); Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
- Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
- RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC (Australia)
- Uppsala Univ. (Sweden); Univ. of Gothenburg (Sweden)
- Uppsala Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Cell and Molecular Biology, Lab. of Molecular Biophysics; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) can probe chemical and biological reactions as they unfold with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. A principal challenge in this pursuit involves the delivery of samples to the X-ray interaction point in such a way that produces data of the highest possible quality and with maximal efficiency. This is hampered by intrinsic constraints posed by the light source and operation within a beamline environment. For liquid samples, the solution typically involves some form of high-speed liquid jet, capable of keeping up with the rate of X-ray pulses. However, conventional jets are not ideal because of radiation-induced explosions of the jet, as well as their cylindrical geometry combined with the X-ray pointing instability of many beamlines which causes the interaction volume to differ for every pulse. This complicates data analysis and contributes to measurement errors. An alternative geometry is a liquid sheet jet which, with its constant thickness over large areas, eliminates the problems related to X-ray pointing. Since liquid sheets can be made very thin, the radiation-induced explosion is reduced, boosting their stability. These are especially attractive for experiments which benefit from small interaction volumes such as fluctuation X-ray scattering and several types of spectroscopy. Although their use has increased for soft X-ray applications in recent years, there has not yet been wide-scale adoption at XFELs. Here, gas-accelerated liquid sheet jet sample injection is demonstrated at the European XFEL SPB/SFX nano focus beamline. Its performance relative to a conventional liquid jet is evaluated and superior performance across several key factors has been found. This includes a thickness profile ranging from hundreds of nanometres to 60 nm, a fourfold increase in background stability and favorable radiation-induced explosion dynamics at high repetition rates up to 1.13 MHz. Its minute thickness also suggests that ultrafast single-particle solution scattering is a possibility.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE; Röntgen-Ångström Cluster; Vetenskapsrådet; National Science Foundation (NSF); Swedish Research Council
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 2470855
- Journal Information:
- IUCrJ, Journal Name: IUCrJ Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 10; ISSN 2052-2525
- Publisher:
- International Union of CrystallographyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
3D-Printed Sheet Jet for Stable Megahertz Liquid Sample Delivery at X-ray Free Electron Lasers
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dataset | January 2023 |
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