Instrumentation

Whatever type of crystalline material you have and whatever type of X-ray diffraction measurement you need to make, we have an X-ray diffractometer that will suit your needs. The Bruker APEXII diffractometer is used primarily for the study of small molecule single crystals, but it can also be used to collect powder diffraction data. The Bruker Venture PHOTON III diffractometers each have two powerful microfocus sources, making them ideal for very small crystals, including proteins. To select the best possible single-crystal for the diffraction measurements, we have two Zeiss SteREO Discovery V.8 microscope equipped with a Sony Alpha A600 cameras. In addition to capturing a picture of your crystals, the camera can display the view from the microscope in real-time to a nearby computer monitor for teaching and training purposes.  The single-crystal instruments are complemented by the dedicated powder diffraction instruments belonging to the Nanoscale Materials Characterization Facility. The Panalytical Empyrean diffractometer is our all-purpose instrument, with five different sample stages to accommodate powders, thin films and bulk materials, as well has heating capability up to 1200 C. The Panalytical X'Pert diffractometer has switchable X-ray sources, giving you the choice of Mo, Cu or Cr radiation, and is often running in point-focus mode rather than the line-focus used in the other systems. For samples that fluoresce under Cu X-rays, the Bruker D2 Phaser is the instrument of choice. It's also great for beginners. The Rigaku SmartLab is optimized for advanced techniques such as GI-XRD, XRR and microdiffraction. It's also the go-to diffractometer for 2-D diffraction experiments.