AUTOMATED EXPERIMENTAL BEAM LINE FRONT-END ALIGNMENT

Stanford University, Stanford CA

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Abstract

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Automated scripts were developed for 1) automated routine alignment of the x-ray beam to the phi axis, 2) alignment of the detector center to the direct beam and 3) calibration of the x-ray beam energy and sample to detector distance. Most of these tasks simply automate the tried and tested procedures used for manual alignment. However, a new procedure was developed for the phi axis alignment, involving the fluorescence scan of a thin (10 micron) W-Ni wire. The new alignment procedures have been implemented on all the SSRL macromolecular crystallography beam lines except on BL12-2, because the size of the fluorescence wire is the same size as the beam.