Patent ID: 11933746
Assignee: PAUL SCHERRER INSTITUT
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 9:
10. A system for conducting automated serial crystallography experiments of crystals at room temperature to collect X-ray diffraction images resolving a structure of the crystals at atomic resolution, the system comprising:
a) an acoustic levitation diffractometer including an acoustic levitator, an X-ray source, and an X-ray image detector;
b) a device according to claim 1, said device having samples of the crystals in the plurality of sample holders;
c) a gonio stage configured to rotate an axis of said acoustic levitator to an oblique angle with respect to an X-ray beam generated by said X-ray source,
d) a translation stage configured to move said acoustic levitator of said acoustic levitation diffractometer in a transverse direction perpendicular to the X-ray beam and the axis of said acoustic levitator,
e) a mechanism configured to harvest the sample holders from said device,
f) wherein a spiral trajectory of a spot of the X-ray beam on said sample holder during data collection is achieved by a combination of a rotation of the acoustically levitated sample holder in said acoustic levitator and a simultaneous transverse translation of the sample holder with said acoustic levitator; the ultrasonic acoustic pressure of said acoustic levitator is adjusted to set a rotation speed of the sample holder acoustically levitated in said acoustic levitator with the axis oblique to the X-ray beam and wherein a transverse translation velocity is set accordingly to adjust a radial separation between the spiral trajectory of the spot of the X-ray beam on the sample holder with an appropriate X-ray dose on sample crystals at a given X-ray photon flux.