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SwissFEL Cristallina

  • Cristallina-MX
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SwissFEL Cristallina Experimental Station

Cristallina experimental hutch
Cristallina experimental hutch on 2023-07-03 with the SwissMX instrument at the experimental position.

Cristallina is the third experimental station of the SwissFEL ARAMIS hard X-ray beamline. It serves both quantum science (Cristallina-Q) and structural biology (Cristallina-MX), enabling the imaging of quantum many-body states under extreme conditions and serial femtosecond protein crystallography, respectively.

The Cristallina beamline is designed to operate in both pink and monochromatic beam modes, and provide variable beam size at the sample position down to a spot smaller than 2 micrometer with optimally focused beam thanks to bendable KB-mirrors. The beamline is operational in pink beam mode, and will be upgraded in with a monochromator to enable experiments requiring reduced bandwidth in 2025.

The Cristallina-MX instrumentation currently includes a setup for fixed-target protein crystallography, which is currently in the pilot phase and will be offered to regular users in 2024. The instrument is operated by the Cristallina-MX team with the support of the Macromolecular Crystallography (MX) group.

The Cristallina-Q instrumentation includes two setups installed on two diffractometers that provide high-field and low-temperature capabilities, which are currently in the commissioning phase. These instruments are operated by the Cristallina-Q team within the Quantum Photon Science (QPS) group and in strong collaboration with the Laboratory for Quantum Matter Research (LQMR) of Prof. Johan Chang at the University of Zurich (UZH). The latter consortium is partially funded by UZH, SNSF and PSI via the R’Equip scheme.

The experimental station is conceived for reshuffling the instruments between the experiment position on the X-ray beam and the dedicated preparation areas, sliding the equipment over a granite floor by means of airpads.


SwissMX_230630

Cristallina-MX

The goal of the Cristallina-MX project is to decrease the barriers to new and non-specialist users wishing to practice SFX. To this end, the project is focused on providing dedicated SFX instrumentation such that users should be able to come armed only with sample and leave with data.

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adrian_project

Cristallina-Q

One of the main driving forces for top-down nanofabrication is to design the light-matter interaction in metamaterials and to improve the optical and transport properties of materials by applying quantum effects, but also by controlling external constrains such as spatial dimension and the strain.

Read more

News and Highlights

14 July 2023
mcarillo-aps-award

Congratulations to Melissa Carrillo for winning the 2023 Margaret Etter Student Lecturer Award at the ACA in the Light Sources Category

Melissa Carrillo is a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Celestino Padeste from the Laboratory of Nanoscale Biology at PSI. Through a collaboration with the Laboratory for X-ray Nanoscience and Technologies, they are responsible for the design and production of the polymer fixed-targets used by the SwissMX endstation at Cristallina. We whole hearted congratulate Melissa for her receipt of a 2023 Margaret Etter Student Lecturer Award at the recent American Crystallography Association Meeting for her work on these polymer supports!

Weiterlesen
27 November 2022
crmx_1st_pp

First pump-probe SFX commissioning beamtime at Cristallina

Professor Przemek Nogly and his team from Jagiellonian University Kraków were kind enough to give their time and samples to assist the Cristallina-MX team in the commissioning of the SwissMX fixed-target endstation for pump-probe experiments. 

Weiterlesen
2 September 2022
CH-F Pulsed Magnet Retreat

Swiss-French Pulsed Magnetic Field Retreat

The Cristallina-Q team has welcomed French high-field experts at SwissFEL for an informal 2-day retreat. The ten participants  discussed which technical capabilities of the UZH-PSI pulsed magnet setup should be further developed and which science cases targeted in the upcoming commissioning and pilot experiment phase.

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14 March 2022
Cristallina 1st light

SwissFEL Cristallina "first light" milestone achieved

First X-rays have reached the SwissFEL Cristallina experimental station on 14.03.2021 which is one day ahead of schedule. The achievement of this important milestone marks the beginning of the commissioning phase of the Cristallina project.

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8 June 2020
Cryo Stand

Diffractometer stand built in collaboration with local SME

A light-weight, low-vibration diffractometer stand has been designed and produced in close collaboration with the local supplier Heinz Baumgartner AG. This component will be used in conjunction with a cryomagnet system to study quantum matter at the SwissFEL Bernina and Cristallina-Q endstations.

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Contact

cristallina@psi.ch

Cristallina Proj. & Beamline

Bill Pedrini

Telephone: +41 56 310 3371
E-mail: bill.pedrini@psi.ch 

Cristallina-Q

Simon Gerber

Telephone: +41 56 310 3965
E-mail: simon.gerber@psi.ch

Cristallina-MX

John H. Beale

Telephone: +41 56 310 4715
E-mail: john.beale@psi.ch

Photon Science Division

Homepage of PSI Division Photon Science (PSD)


SwissFEL

The new X-ray free electron laser facility.



Quantum Photon Science Group
Fundamentals and concepts for novel quantum devices
 

Macromolecular Crystallography Group

The study of macromolecular biological molecules using X-ray diffraction.

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