At the beginning of this month, the Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) Station with the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF) was successfully put into operation.

In recent years, the number of SAXS users has been on the increase and the cry for a new SAXS station has been the motive force behind the successful construction. The new SAXS beamline 1W2A and the protein crystallography beamline 1W2B will share the same front end, which is ejected from 1W2. Approximately, 2-mrad synchrotron radiation x-ray on horizontal direction is captured and monochromized by triangle-bending Si (111) crystal. The monochromic light fixed at 0.154nm is focused onto the detector. The station is equipped with Mar165 CCD detector, curved one-dimensional gas detector, ion chambers, four-blade slits, exposure shutter and sample stage etc.

The performance of the SAXS beamline and its experimental conditions have been greatly improved and are much better than the old one. The initial reaction from the first two users has been very positive. At present, the SAXS station is in its normal SAXS mode. Further improvement will be made depending upon the users’ requirements and the budget availability.