Liquid sample delivery techniques for serial femtosecond crystallography |
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Authors: | Uwe Weierstall |
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Institution: | Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA |
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Abstract: | X-ray free-electron lasers overcome the problem of radiation damage in protein crystallography and allow structure determination from micro- and nanocrystals at room temperature. To ensure that consecutive X-ray pulses do not probe previously exposed crystals, the sample needs to be replaced with the X-ray repetition rate, which ranges from 120 Hz at warm linac-based free-electron lasers to 1 MHz at superconducting linacs. Liquid injectors are therefore an essential part of a serial femtosecond crystallography experiment at an X-ray free-electron laser. Here, we compare different techniques of injecting microcrystals in solution into the pulsed X-ray beam in vacuum. Sample waste due to mismatch of the liquid flow rate to the X-ray repetition rate can be addressed through various techniques. |
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Keywords: | liquid jets serial femtosecond crystallography X-ray free-electron laser |
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