Versatility

SAXS is many things

Any materials science lab will need to measure many different types of samples

  • solids
  • powders
  • solutions
  • gels
  • fibers
  • thin films  and many more

And there will be a need to manipulate them in even more ways:

  • heating
  • cooling
  • stretching
  • shearing
  • electrocuting
  • drying
  • wetting
  • subjecting them to magnetic fields
  • subjecting them various atmospheres
  • shining light on them, etc

Oh and yes and of course measuring them in

  • transmission mode
  • grazing incidence mode and/or
  • anything in-between.

Design for versatility

So having made SAXS instrumentation since 1985, we have very consciously designed versatility into our materials science instruments in the following ways:

  • The moving detector allows to make optimized measurement in any given q-range that you choose and so allow you to switch easily between for example SAXS and WAXS, or even GI-SAXS
  • The sample enclosure on all instruments, allow for a very large a diverse range of sample environments, and
  • The modular nature of the underlying software allows software integration of both commercial and home-built sample environments, that may become relevant at a later time

And watch it grow

As a result of these characteristics the following types of experiments have been done on our materials science instruments

  • Ambient work with up to 30 solid samples in a single run
  • Temperature work between -130 and 350°C on solids, gels and liquids
  • Solution Scattering in refillable capillaries at temperatures from 4 to 80°C
  • GISAXS/GIWAXS on ambient or temperature controlled stages
  • DSC work on samples in transmission
  • Tensile stress work on fibers and solid samples
  • Shearing work on gel-like samples
  • Light-exposure work on light responsive materials
  • Magnetic work with both small and large magnets and
  • Time-resolved Micro-fluidics
  • Scattering in humidity conditions