Calls for Proposals

The Alvra instrument specializes in ultrafast dynamics in chemical and biological systems, especially in solutions, liquids, or crystals in viscous media. Alvra is equipped for X-ray spectroscopy (absorption and emission), liquid scattering, and serial femtosecond crystallography measurements, as well as flexible user-provided setups. In Alvra there are two endstations available, the Alvra Prime chamber (vacuum and He environment) and Alvra Flex (in air) in the parameters described below.

For high time resolution experiments, a single pulse timing diagnostics, for jitter and drift corrections, can be used with pink FEL beam and Si-111 monochromatic on best effort basis (please contact instrument responsible).

We offer short and dedicated SFX beamtime slots for experiments in the following standard configuration: X-ray photon energy of 12 keV with standard bandwidth, femtosecond laser excitation between 500 nm - 600 nm or at 800 nm and at best 100 fsec time resolution, Jungfrau 4M detector, LCP injector. The max. beamtime length is 3 days (9 shifts) including setup. Indicate in the abstract of your proposal if it should be considered for the new standard SFX beamtime and add a detailed beamtime plan in the experimental description.

General information about the Alvra endstations can be found at: Alvra
For questions and further information about Alvra contact: Dr. Camila Bacellar

The Bernina Instrument is specialized on studying condensed matter systems by selective light excitation and selective resonant X-ray probes. It is equipped with flexible but precise positioning hardware for diffraction on solid state samples, but also larger user-supplied hardware. The instrument can interchange large endstations on rails transverse to beam direction. Two endstation platforms are  permanently installed, which can be configured for different sample and detector degrees of freedom for varying loads of sample environment or detection schemes. Both endstations can be completed with different sample platforms that allow a large range of of specialized sample environment being precisely positioned. An additional 6 DOF robot arm can be used for flexible detector positioning.

Endstation platforms

• X-ray Diffractometer (XRD), equipped with a two circle detector arm,
• General Purpose Station (GPS), with a multi-purpose horizontal 2-theta arm.

Sample platforms

• Six degree of freedom (DOF) heavy load goniometer,
• Two-circle surface diffractometer combination plus six DOF hexapod,
• Kappa arm (6 DOF).

New setups

• For low sample temperature (down to 5K), high electric field THz pulse excitation, and tender X-ray range experiments, a  vacuum chamber sample environment is available . It is advised to explore the compatibility of proposed experiments with the chamber geometry before proposal submission. For details about the chamber please refer to https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/ac08b5
• A newly commissioned Resonant Inelastic X-ray Spectrometer (RIXS) with spherical Si(844) diced analyzer crystals is available for this call. The spectrometer features a 1m arm following the Rowland geometry. Using the beamline double crystal Si-(333) monochromator, the reached energy resolution at the IR L-edge at 11.215keV is 130meV.

For high time resolution experiments, a single pulse timing diagnostics can be used at Si-111 monochromatic and the pink FEL beam.

General information can be found at: Aramis Bernina Experimental Endstations
For questions and further information about Bernina, please contact: Dr. Henrik Lemke

The first endstation the Cristallina-MX project to be commissioned is called SwissMX (Serial WIth Solid-Support MX), a fixed-target endstation designed for high-throughput SFX and SFX pump-probe. SwissMX has been commissioned with an in-air sample environment since May 2022 and is now ready for users.

The SwissMX has currently only been commissioned to accept two styles of fixed-target: the PSI MISP (MIcro-Structured Polymer) and the MPI SOS (Sheet-On-Sheet) chip (Doak et al., 2018). The MISP-chip is composed of an array of apertures in defined locations in a similar style to the Oxford (Horrell et al., 2021) and HARE chips (Mehrabi et al., 2020). The MISP-chips can be fabricated in either a clear or an opaque polymer, with the only latter being compatible with pump-probe measurements. The SOS chip by comparison is made by carefully sandwiching a sample between two sheets of polymer film and are ideal for samples of limited volume in viscous media such as LCP. Liquid-crystal samples will need to be embedded in a moderately viscous medium to be used effectively. Please indicate in the DUO which chip or both you would like to use.

The SwissMX is capable of both SFX and nanosecond resolution SFX pump-probe measurements. The endstation can be fibre-coupled to an EKSPLA nanosecond OPO and the pump-probe measurements have been commissioned using the opaque MISP chips. Pump-probe is only possible using these chips.

Our standard SFX beamtime configurations are: X-ray photon energy of 12 keV with standard bandwidth (0.15 % SASE), nano-second laser excitation between 410 nm - 700 nm (if required), Jungfrau 8M detector and either MISP or SOS chips. Max beamtime length will be 2 days (6 shifts). Please indicate if you would only like 0.5/1 shifts for non-pump-probe SFX measurements.

General information can be found at the Cristallina-MX project page.
For questions and further information about Cristallina-MX, please contact: Dr. John Beale