The guiding principles of the design of the SWAXS setup are flexibility and ease of use. Since novel wood-based materials is a special focus of ForMAX, the WAXS detector must allow monitoring diffraction from cellulose fibrils/fibers in all directions of the scattering plane. Since many in-situ studies during material processing are foreseen, data acquisition times down to ms regime is needed. Specific equipment are listed below.
Detectors
ForMAX is equipped with two state-of-the-art hybrid pixel detectors: a Dectris EIGER2 X 4M SAXS detector and a custom-designed X-Spectrum Lambda 3M WAXS detector. The SAXS detector is placed on a motorized XYZ trolley inside the SAXS flight tube. The WAXS detector is mounted on an evacuated nose cone of the flight tube and the four modules of the WAXS detector have a “windmill” geometry with a hole in the center, to pass through the direct beam and the SAXS signal (see image below). It allows WAXS data collection at scattering angles 2θ=7-20 degrees, in all directions. See table below for details of the detectors.
| Detector | EIGER2 X 4M | Lambda 3M "windmill" |
|---|---|---|
| Usage | SAXS | WAXS |
| Number of pixels | 4M | 3M |
| Sensor size (h x v) | 2068×2162 pixels | 4x512x1536 pixels |
| Pixel size (h x v) | 75×75 µm2 | 55×55 µm2 |
| Maximum frame rate | 500 Hz | 1 kHz |
Sample manipulation
ForMAX has the following sample stages for different SWAXS experiments:
- SWAXS: A modular 5-axis stack of sample stages from Huber for general SWAXS experiments. From bottom to top:
- 2-circle segment (pitch, roll), model 5203.30 (+/- 13 and +/- 12 degrees range for lower and upper axis, respectively)
- 2-axis horizontal stage, model 5102.25 (+/- 25 mm translation range for each axis)
- vertical stage, model 5103.A20-40 (+/- 20 mm translation range)
- optical breadboard on top to facilitate mounting of sample holders or environments
- Scanning SWAXS imaging: A modular 5-axis stack of sample stages from Huber for scanning SWAXS experiments. From bottom to top:
- 2-axis horizontal stage, model 5102.25 (+/- 25 mm translation range for each axis)
- vertical stage, either model 5103.A20-90 (+/- 45 mm) or 5103.C30 (+/- 10 mm; mounted on bottom), depending on requirements for speed and resolution
- custom large-range pitch stage, model 5202.80 (+/- 45 degrees)
- yaw stage, model 408
- manual 5-axis goniometer head 1002 or 1005 can be mounted on top, using PMMA pins shown in the mechanical drawing below
