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3D-Printed Sheet Jet for Stable Megahertz Liquid Sample Delivery at X-ray Free Electron Lasers

Authors :
Konold, Patrick E.
You, Tong
Bielecki, Johan
Valerio, Joana
Kloos, Marco
Westphal, Daniel
Bellisario, Alfredo
Varma, Tej
Wolter, August
Koliyadu, Jayanath C. P.
Koua, Faisal H. M.
Letrun, Romain
Round, Adam
Sato, Tokushi
Mésźaros, Petra
Monrroy, Leonardo
Mutisya, Jennifer
Bódizs, Szabolcs
Larkiala, Taru
Nimmrich, Amke
Alvarez, Roberto
Bean, Richard
Ekeberg, Tomas
Kirian, Richard A.
Westenhoff, Sebastian
Maia, Filipe R. N. C.
Source :
IUCrJ 10, 662-670 (2023)
Publication Year :
2023

Abstract

X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs) can probe chemical and biological reactions as they unfold with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution. A principal challenge in this pursuit is the delivery of samples to the X-ray interaction point in a way that produces data of the highest possible quality and efficiency. This is hampered by constraints posed by the light source and operation within a beamline environment. For liquid samples, the solution typically involves a high-speed liquid jet, capable of keeping up with the rate of X-ray pulses. However, conventional jets are not ideal because of radiation-induced explosions of the jet, as well as their cylindrical geometry combined with the X-ray pointing instability of many beamlines causes the interaction volume to differ for every pulse. This complicates data analysis and contributes to measurement errors. An alternative geometry is a liquid sheet jet which, with its constant thickness over large areas, eliminates the X-ray pointing related problems. Since liquid sheets can be made very thin, the radiation-induced explosion is reduced, boosting their stability. They are especially attractive for experiments which benefit from small interaction volumes such as fluctuation X-ray scattering and several types of spectroscopy. Although they have seen increasing use for soft X-ray applications in recent years, there has not yet been wide-scale adoption at XFELs. Here, we demonstrate liquid sheet jet sample injection at the European XFEL. We evaluate several aspects of its performance relative to a conventional liquid jet including thickness profile, stability, and radiation-induced explosion dynamics at high repetition rates. The sheet jet exhibits superior performance across these critical experimental parameters. Its minute thickness also suggests ultrafast single-particle solution scattering is a possibility.

Details

Database :
arXiv
Journal :
IUCrJ 10, 662-670 (2023)
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsarx.2306.07626
Document Type :
Working Paper
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1107/S2052252523007972