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ALBA Synchrotron
General information
Before your experiment
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.
Running your experiment
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 kα 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
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.