3D-printed sheet jet for stable megahertz liquid sample delivery at X-ray free-electron lasers

Autor: Patrick E. Konold, Tong You, Johan Bielecki, Joana Valerio, Marco Kloos, Daniel Westphal, Alfredo Bellisario, Tej Varma Yenupuri, August Wollter, Jayanath C. P. Koliyadu, Faisal H.M. Koua, Romain Letrun, Adam Round, Tokushi Sato, Petra Mészáros, Leonardo Monrroy, Jennifer Mutisya, Szabolcs Bódizs, Taru Larkiala, Amke Nimmrich, Roberto Alvarez, Patrick Adams, Richard Bean, Tomas Ekeberg, Richard A. Kirian, Andrew V. Martin, Sebastian Westenhoff, Filipe R. N. C. Maia
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: IUCrJ, Vol 10, Iss 6, Pp 662-670 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2052-2525
20522525
DOI: 10.1107/S2052252523007972
Popis: 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 involves the delivery of samples to the X-ray interaction point in such a way that produces data of the highest possible quality and with maximal efficiency. This is hampered by intrinsic constraints posed by the light source and operation within a beamline environment. For liquid samples, the solution typically involves some form of 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 which 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 problems related to X-ray pointing. Since liquid sheets can be made very thin, the radiation-induced explosion is reduced, boosting their stability. These are especially attractive for experiments which benefit from small interaction volumes such as fluctuation X-ray scattering and several types of spectroscopy. Although their use has increased for soft X-ray applications in recent years, there has not yet been wide-scale adoption at XFELs. Here, gas-accelerated liquid sheet jet sample injection is demonstrated at the European XFEL SPB/SFX nano focus beamline. Its performance relative to a conventional liquid jet is evaluated and superior performance across several key factors has been found. This includes a thickness profile ranging from hundreds of nanometres to 60 nm, a fourfold increase in background stability and favorable radiation-induced explosion dynamics at high repetition rates up to 1.13 MHz. Its minute thickness also suggests that ultrafast single-particle solution scattering is a possibility.
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