Experimental Equipment

Standard Equipment

The SSRL Macromolecular Crystallography Group supports, operates and develops four dedicated beam lines including two bright undulator micro-focus beam lines (BL12-1 and BL12-2). All beamlines are optimized for high-intensity, high-throughput, and turnkey operation that achieves a high level of experimental automation and utilizes state-of-the-art area detector technology.  Each beam line is equipped with a Dectris EIGER2 or EIGER 16M or PILATUS 6M photon counting x-ray detector. A chart on our homepage lists the detectors used on each beam line. Other standard equipment includes an Oxford 800 or 1000 cryo-cooler, and the Stanford Automated Mounting system to remotely exchange samples at cryogenic or controlled humidity or elevated temperature conditons. Sample preparation and storage facilities, include Leica microscopes for sample mounting, noble gas pressurization devices, and a well stocked tool and supply board. 

The hardware control system software used at our beamlines is Blu-Ice/DCS.  It efficiently hides the complexity of the instruments behind a flexible and easy to use graphical user interface.

Staff Developments

The SSRL Macromolecular Crystallography Prototype Development Group focuses on the operation and advancement of these stations as well as the development of novel techniques and specialized instrumentation for macromolecular x-ray crystallography using synchrotron radiation.   For more information about some of our hardware developments work, please see the following links:

• The Stanford Automated Mounting system (SAM) is in routine operation at BL12-1, BL12-2, BL9-2, BL14-1 and BL7-1. All the tools and supplies required for using the system may be purchased from external vendors or borrowed from the beamline tool and supply board. In 2004 completion of the SAM system enabled the SSRL macromolecular crystallography beam lines to be the first in the world to offer fully remote access data collection.
• A new program for remote-access data collection using samples at controlled humidity has been released in 2020.
• The SSRL macromolecular crystallography group partners with LCLS scientists to support experiments at the LCLS-MFX instrument.
• Noble gas pressurization devices have been developed at SSRL and experiments using xenon or krypton gas are routinely performed at our stations.
• A single crystal UV-Vis microspectrophotometer has been fully automated for remote-access data collection at SSRL beam line 9-2
• A versatile beamstop with an integrated sensor has been developed using non-specialized components.