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Achieved Beamline Updates
2007 October
The CMCF has had its most successful run to date.
2007 April
The small gap undulator (SGU) was repaired to correct a manufacturing error that caused a significant drop in lifetime of the storage ring when using a small gap (< 8mm). The SGU is working at full capacity and its full range of design gap values can be used.
The marmosaic 225 CCD was also re-calibrated by the manufacturer with an improved procedure, which will give better spot discrimination and higher quality data.
The bender motors in the double crystal monochromator were replaced with higher torque motors to provide a more robust and reliable system for sagital focusing.
2007 February
The CryoJet has been connected via RS232 to the controls network and software was written to monitor the temperature and flow rate of the cool nitrogen stream.
2006 November
Swapped out Ion Pump on double crystal monochromator with a unit that includes a titanium sublimation pump.
2006 August
Installed a protective Plexiglas cover around the sample camera to maintain its alignment by preventing accidental knocking off axis.
2006 June
The first Se-edge scan was performed on June 23
2006 March
The monochromator was calibrated for energy selection. The MAR CCD 255 detector was installed, and the first diffraction pattern recorded on March 18, 2006 at 9.31 keV, detector distance of 260 mm, and 3 second exposure. The protein is PEP Carboxykinase (courtesy Louis Delbaere)
2006 February
Monochromatic light was recorded on the goniometer head of the
end-station’s goniostat.
For the first time the beam was focused horizontally by bending the second
crystal of the DCM, however the DCM still needs better alignment with
respect to the X-ray beam.
The double crystal monochromator (DCM) was calibrated at the Cu-K edge using
the 3rd harmonic, while the small-gap in-vacuum undulator’s gap was set to
10 mm.
2005 September
Light observed in second optical hutch! The next hutch is the experimental hutch.
The Canadian Macromolecular Crystallography Facility (CMCF) has had a very successful run recently. August saw the installation of the CMCF small-gap undulator (SGU), which is a device consisting of periodic dipole magnet structure that electrons travel through at nearly the speed of light. The electrons traversing the SGU undergo rapid oscillations resulting in the emission of synchrotron light. After a successful bake-out of the SGU vacuum chamber, the pressure was brought down to 2x10^-9 Torr, well prepared for the electron beam. Ingvar Blomqvist, who designed the SGU, was the first to witness evidence that the undulator was producing light, on his last day at the CLS, prior to his retirement. On August 26, the undulator gap was brought within its operating range, and an increase in the pressure in the SGU signalled that the undulator was producing light. This was the first indirect evidence that the CMCF finally had light, as photons that strike absorbers or the wall of the vacuum chamber produce photoelectrons that can desorb residual gas molecules from the chamber walls and cause a pressure increase temporarily and then actually improve compared with the original pressure (a process called vacuum conditioning). Thus, Ingvar was off to his well deserved retirement, knowing that the SGU was working as it should. It took a few weeks, and a bit of troubleshooting to ensure that the x-rays produced by the SGU had an unobstructed path down the CMCF beamline, but the team at the CLS soon had direct evidence that the SGU was indeed producing synchrotron light. On August 29, undulator light was observed in the first (of three) optical hutches, via a YAG crystal that fluoresces with visible light when struck by x-rays. Then after a bit of tweaking, light was observed further down the CMCF beamline in the second hutch on September 29. There is work ahead, to get the CMCF commissioning complete, but we are well on our way thanks to Ingvar and many others.
2005
Endstation components installed by ACCEL (photos).
2004
CMCF Beamline Design Team meeting Saskatoon, November 21, 2004
2003
Automation of Protein Crystallography Beamlines Workshop November 2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
Report from the October '99 meeting in Saskatoon