Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 28: Posters: Imaging

BP 28.5: Poster

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 17:30–19:30, Poster A

Sample preparation and delivery for bio-imaging at the European XFEL Facility — •Joachim Schulz — European XFEL GmbH, Hamburg, Germany

Recent success in femtosecond x-ray protein nano-crystallography [Nature 470, p.73 (2011)] and imaging of mimivirus particles [Nature 470, p.78 (2011)] demonstrate the prospects of free-electron lasers for biophysics.

At the European XFEL GmbH in Hamburg (Germany) we design and build a 3.4 kilometres long x-ray free-electron laser. This facility will produce femtosecond x-ray pulses with wavelengths below an Angstrom. The expected brilliance of the facility will be considerably higher compared with other x-ray FELs and the repetition rate of 27.000 pulses per second will be unique. One of the six end-stations of this laser facility will be optimized for imaging experiments on biological samples. The European XFEL Facility will start operation in 2015.

One of the challenges for biological imaging techniques at free-electron laser sources is the preparation and delivering of specimen into the vacuum of the x-ray laser. Lab space and equipment will have to be provided close to the end-stations. The bio-samples have to be efficiently delivered to the beam and hit by the x-ray pulses. To this end methods have to be developed to keep the samples in the natural state and to avoid too much contamination of the vacuum. In this presentation I will show first considerations concerning the sample delivery system for bio-samples at the European XFEL Facility.