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Rapid sample delivery for megahertz serial crystallography at X-ray FELs

Authors :
Max O. Wiedorn
Salah Awel
Andrew J. Morgan
Kartik Ayyer
Yaroslav Gevorkov
Holger Fleckenstein
Nils Roth
Luigi Adriano
Richard Bean
Kenneth R. Beyerlein
Joe Chen
Jesse Coe
Francisco Cruz-Mazo
Tomas Ekeberg
Rita Graceffa
Michael Heymann
Daniel A. Horke
Juraj Knoška
Valerio Mariani
Reza Nazari
Dominik Oberthür
Amit K. Samanta
Raymond G. Sierra
Claudiu A. Stan
Oleksandr Yefanov
Dimitrios Rompotis
Jonathan Correa
Benjamin Erk
Rolf Treusch
Joachim Schulz
Brenda G. Hogue
Alfonso M. Gañán-Calvo
Petra Fromme
Jochen Küpper
Andrei V. Rode
Saša Bajt
Richard A. Kirian
Henry N. Chapman
Source :
IUCrJ, Vol 5, Iss 5, Pp 574-584 (2018)
Publication Year :
2018
Publisher :
International Union of Crystallography, 2018.

Abstract

Liquid microjets are a common means of delivering protein crystals to the focus of X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) for serial femtosecond crystallography measurements. The high X-ray intensity in the focus initiates an explosion of the microjet and sample. With the advent of X-ray FELs with megahertz rates, the typical velocities of these jets must be increased significantly in order to replenish the damaged material in time for the subsequent measurement with the next X-ray pulse. This work reports the results of a megahertz serial diffraction experiment at the FLASH FEL facility using 4.3 nm radiation. The operation of gas-dynamic nozzles that produce liquid microjets with velocities greater than 80 m s−1 was demonstrated. Furthermore, this article provides optical images of X-ray-induced explosions together with Bragg diffraction from protein microcrystals exposed to trains of X-ray pulses repeating at rates of up to 4.5 MHz. The results indicate the feasibility for megahertz serial crystallography measurements with hard X-rays and give guidance for the design of such experiments.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20522525
Volume :
5
Issue :
5
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
IUCrJ
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.f3b84372fa540809b48a89d74a7060c
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1107/S2052252518008369