I22: SAXS/WAXS beamline at Diamond Light Source – an overview of 10 years operation

TLDR

Beamline I22 at Diamond Light Source is dedicated to studying soft‑matter systems in biology and materials science. It operates from 3.7 to 22 keV for transmission SAXS and 14 to 20 keV for micro‑focus SAXS, delivering 240 µm × 60 µm beams (main) or ~10 µm × 10 µm (micro‑focus) with a versatile sample platform and a high‑brilliance source that enables structural studies under extreme conditions such as high‑pressure fluid flow. I22 delivers millisecond‑scale data acquisition, enabling kinetic investigations of processes like protein folding and polymer or colloid structural evolution.

Abstract

Beamline I22 at Diamond Light Source is dedicated to the study of soft-matter systems from both biological and materials science. The beamline can operate in the range 3.7 keV to 22 keV for transmission SAXS and 14 keV to 20 keV for microfocus SAXS with beam sizes of 240 µm × 60 µm [full width half-maximum (FWHM) horizontal (H) × vertical (V)] at the sample for the main beamline, and approximately 10 µm × 10 µm for the dedicated microfocusing platform. There is a versatile sample platform for accommodating a range of facilities and user-developed sample environments. The high brilliance of the insertion device source on I22 allows structural investigation of materials under extreme environments (for example, fluid flow at high pressures and temperatures). I22 provides reliable access to millisecond data acquisition timescales, essential to understanding kinetic processes such as protein folding or structural evolution in polymers and colloids.