NCD-SWEET beamline is a flexible multipurpose beamline that can accommodate a large variety of sample environments for in situ experiments (for example: spin coating systems, 3D printers, ALD reactors, electrochemical, battery or shear cells, furnaces, etc.). Here below you will find more information about the modular sample positioning system and some sample environment devices already available at NCD-SWEET beamline. Users are encouraged to bring their own equipment always following the safety regulations.

Sample positioning

NCD-SWEET provides a sample positioning system that allows to move and tilt the sample position for performing your experiment. This is a modular setup that can be adapted for a specific experiment.

User sample environment

This modular configuration allows NCD-SWEET beamline to accommodate a large variety of user sample environments. If you would like to bring your own sample environment for an experiment, we strongly recommend discussing it with a member of the beamline team well in advance of submitting your proposal and coming to your experiment. The NCD-SWEET beamline staff can help you during the design phase of your setup to ensure a full compatibility with the beamline.

Here below, some common sample environments available at NCD-SWEET beamline are described.

Linkam stages

Several linkam stages are available with temperature and force control (stretcher).

Temperature control

In addition to the different Linkam stages described, there is a NanoDAC temperature controller also available at the beamline to read/control the temperature of a system from the beamline.

Cooling system

A chiller (-10  to 80 ºC) is available with manual control. General water cooling lines with a pressure regulator and flow sensor from ALBA are also available. The connections follow the metric using 10 mm OD tubes as main tube for cooling systems.

Gas system

NCD-SWEET beamline provides a gas injection and exhaust system for using gases for an experiment. Please, contact the beamline staff to ensure that the gas of interest (pressure, composition, volume) can be used for your experiment and that is delivered on time (2 months before your experiment).

• Exhaust: 2 x KF40 connections are available to connect the sample environment to an independent ATEX certified extraction system
• Injection: Limited with a pressure up to 10 bar, there are 8 pressure regulators with 1/8" or 1/4" connections for: 2 inert, 2 mix, 3 flammable mix, 1 oxygen gas bottles.

Pneumatic valve controller

A pneumatic controller is available to open/close pneumatic valves from the beamline controls system. It can control up to 8 pneumatic lines (max. 6 bars) but it can be extended in the future.

Before submitting a proposal, check the relevant information at the Users' section.

Prepare your visit and plan your experiment. For further details of the whole process, check this page with full information.

Proper configuration of the NCD-SWEET beamline is essential for the feasibility of your experiment. We strongly recommend discussing your experiment and set up sufficiently in advance with your local contact. In this section you will find information about the experimental conditions and the holders available at NCD-SWEET, and how to send your samples to ALBA in the event you are not able to travel with them.

For information about how to send your samples, please check point 7 of this section.

How to contact your local contact?

The NCD-SWEET beamline staff contact details can be found here.

Your local contact will have the beamline ready at 9:30 h. He/she will be on site between 9:30 h-18:30 h. After 18:30 h, your first contact for any issue during the experiment will be the Floor Coordinator (FC): 4401, or 608018721 (mobile) (please dial 0 before dialing the mobile phone number).

Before calling to the floor coordinator, you are kindly requested to consult the Frequently Asked Questions & the user guide.

Other useful phone numbers during your experiment at NCD-SWEET are the following:

• NCD-SWEET Control Hutch phone number is (+34) 93 592 4011.
• Main entrance (+34) 93 592 4498.

Data acquisition & User guide

The data acquisition system is quite friendly-user for most of the users with some experience in synchrotron radiation facilities, however can be a bit difficult for beginners. For beginers but also for expert users, you can download the user guide to be familiar with the beamline data acquisition system and most frequently used software and macros.

Refilling the liquid nitrogen dewar

If you use the liquid nitrogen dewar for the Linkam setuo, you can refill it from the 25L dewar available at the beamline, always following the safety protocol. If the 25L dewar needs to be filled up, please ask your local contact/floor coordinator for refilling it. Users are not allowed to manipulate the LN2 extraction point.

Spatial Calibration

Spatial calibration is a must to calibrate the recorded reciprocal space images. At the beginning of your experiment, the local contact will measure the calibration powder (from the NIST) and it will help you to do the calibration using pyFAI. At NCD-SWEET beamline, typically the SAXS detector is calibrated using silver behenate while the WAXS detector is calibrated with chromium (III) oxide.

Silver Behenate (AgBh)

Silver behenate was characterized using the powder diffraction technique. With the National Institute of Standards and Technology's standard reference material silicon as an internal standard, the long spacing of silver behenate was accurately determined from the profile-fitted synchrotron diffraction peaks, with d₀₀₁ = 58.380 (3) Å. Because silver behenate has a large number of well defined diffraction peaks evenly distributed, it is suitable for use as an angle-calibration standard for low-angle diffraction. However, care must be taken if silver behenate is to be used as a peak-profile calibration standard because of line broadening (Huang TC et. al. J. Appl. Cryst. 26 (1993), 180-184) [Figure 1].

Figure 1. 2D pattern of silver behenate (AgBh) and the integrated 1D profile obtained at NCD-SWEET (12.4 keV, 2.1 m camera length). The tabulated D-spacing with the corresponding q values are also presented.

Chromium(III) oxide (Cr₂O₃)

Chromium(III) oxide powder presents a corundum structure intended primarily for use as internal standards for quantitative X-ray diffraction analysis. This oxide offers linear attenuation for Cu k_α radiation of 912 cm^–1 that allows the user to nominally match the standard to the unknown in order to minimize the effects of microabsorption. An analysis of the lattice parameters and phase fractions determined from X-ray powder diffraction data indicated that this material was homogeneous with respect to diffraction properties [SRM 676; Alumina Internal Standard for Quantitative Analysis by X-ray Powder Diffraction; National Institute of Standards and Technology; U.S. Department of Commerce: Gaithersburg, MD (20 September 2005)]. The Cr₂O₃ is supplied by NIST (Standard reference material 674b) [Figure 2].

Figure 2. Chromium (III) oxide scattering pattern and the integrated 1D profile recorded at NCD-SWEET beamline (12.4 keV, 229 mm camera length). The tabulated D-spacing with the corresponding q values for Cr₂O₃ are also presented.

Data backup

During your experiment, all the data are stored in the ALBA storage system servers in a Raid 6 system in order to protect your data in real time. Additionally, we have an automatic backup system controlled by a robot to preserve your data for a very long time. During the experiment, most of the users copy the experimental data in their own external Hard Disk (USB 2.0, USB 3.0, eSATA or SATA) but they can also be downloaded remotely when the experiment has finished.

Currently ALBA guarantees data storage up to 6 months after your experiment terminates. We are currently working to extend this data storage time in the future.

After your experiment, please leave the beamline, laboratories and any used item/space in its original place and ready for the next user. Also, remember to follow the ALBA general guidelines.

Your feedback is really important for us. It will help to improve the beamline and to offer a better experience to the users.

Remote access to your experimental data

Check the details in section 4 of this page.

Software for scattering data analysis

There is plenty of software to analyze the scattering data in transmission (SAXS & WAXS) and reflection mode (GISAXS & GIWAXS). In these websites you can check a non-comprehensive list of available software for data analysis.

• SAS portal
• GISAXS wiki

Some of the most common ones:

• ATSAS: A program suite for SAXS data analysis from biological macromolecules developed by Svergun Group at EMBL-Hamburg. Includes primary data processing, Ab initio methods, rigid body modelling, analysis of mixtures and flexible systems, and PDB oriented tools.
• PyFAI: PyFAI is a python library for azimuthal integration of X-ray/neutron/electron scattering data acquired with area detectors.
• DAWN: An open source software (license) for the visualization and processing of scientific data. Although specifically developed for data from synchrotron based techniques, many of the features of DAWN are useful in other fields. DAWN loads data from many common formats (text files, tiffs, hdf5…), as well as those specific to X-ray techniques (NeXus, EDF, MAR…).

NCD-SWEET beamline users also recommend:

• BornAgain: Open source research software to simulate and fit GISAXS.
• Bubble: Fast on-line 1D integration for small and wide angle diffraction.
• DPDAK: tool developed for (online analysis) of large sequences of small angle scattering data.
• GIDVis:  a modular MATLAB program to analyze grazing incidence diffraction images. A manual is also available.
• GIXSGUI: MATLAB-based software for visualization and reducyion of Grazing Incidence X-ray Scattering data. There is a dedicated paper.
• GIuSAXS: a tool to inspect GISAXS and GIWAXS data made by the collaboration of different scientist.
• ImageJ: Java image processing program. To read .edf files, you need to download this .class file and save it in the "plugins/Input-Output" directory of ImageJ. Then you can open a .edf file with imageJ: Plugins/Input-Output/EdfRead. More information can be found here.
• McSAS: Monte Carlo regression package for SAXS data analysis. There is a publication dedicated about this software.
• Medved: Load and visualize integrated 1D patterns and much more. Check the related paper.

CXRO: X-Ray interactions with matter

GISAXS wiki: The main page for GISAXS community

SAS: The home for Small Angle X-ray Scattering

Saxier Forum: A webpage designed by Svergun Group at EMBL-Hamburg. Questions about SAXS data analysis can be posted on the web and are answered by the members of the group. The users are also invited to participate in the feed-back.

X-ray Data Base: Website based on the sqlite X-ray data base also available as python module

X-ray Data Booklet: Digital version of the well-known X-ray Data Booklet also in format of periodic table