SwissFEL Cristallina Endstation

Cristallina is the third endstation 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-MX experimental stations are designed for serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX), and operated by the Cristallina-MX team with the support of the Macromolecular Crystallography Group.  The SwissMX fixed-target SFX experimental station is in user operations since January 2024. Experimental stations for different means of sample delivery are in conception.

The Cristallina-Q experimental stations provides unique high-field and low-temperature capabilities, and are operated by the Cristallina-Q team within the Quantum Photon Science Group and in collaboration with the Laboratory for Quantum Matter Research of Prof. Johan Chang at the University of Zurich (UZH). Cristallina-Q has been partially funded by UZH, SNSF and PSI via the R’Equip scheme. The experimental stations include the Ultralow-T Vectormagnet, now open to users, and the Pulsed Magnet, which is currently under commissioning. Both experimental stations rely on heavy-load diffractometers to orient the sample in the beam. 

The overall Cristallina endstation layout allows for reshuffling of the experimental stations between the X-ray beam experiment position and dedicated preparation areas by sliding the setups over a granite floor by means of airpads. The Cristallina beamline is designed to operate with both pink and monochromatic beam, and to provide a variable beam size at the sample position down to smaller than 2 µm using bendable KB mirrors. The beamline is operational in pink beam mode. A monochromator has been installed in the winter shutdown 2025 and is currently being commissioned for experiments requiring reduced bandwidths.