Beginning in June 2002, SER-CAT plans on providing researchers from its members institutions with reliable, rapid and timely access to a fully automated X-ray beamline. Members will be provided with a comprehensive research facility, including a full complement of instrumentation, software, and support staff for high throughput data collection and processing. SER-CAT also plans to provide 25% of its beam time to outside users through its Independent Investigator program. In addition, we hope to provide the capability of direct remote access via an Internet II point of presence from a researcher's home institution. The principal focus of the SER-CAT research is macromolecular crystallography.
SER-CAT occupies Sector 22, at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) located at the Argonne National Laboratory. SER-CAT's goal is to place into operation two beamlines, an Insertion Device (ID) and a Bending Magnet (BM) beamline. The ID beamline construction project began in June 1999 and beamline commissioning is anticipated to begin in July 2001. The BM construction project will formally start in Fall, 2000 with the award for construction of the the BM shielding and electical utility installation.
The optics designs for the ID and BM beamlines are basically copies of those designed and successfully used for a number of years at the Structural Biology Center at APS and X9B at the National Synchrotron Light Source located at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The X-ray optics designs have proven ideal for macromolecular crystallography. However, the SER-CAT designs have been considerably enhanced based on the operational experiences gained using these earlier beamlines and advances that have taken place in technologies since their development.
The concept of the SER-CAT beamlines is to develop a coherent design for the entire beamline from the front-end, to the optics and their placement, to the endstation instrumentation, and detector- all matched and forming a single optimized design for accurate and very rapid structural determinations. The SER-CAT insertion device beamline shown schematically in Figure 1, will provide an extremely high-flux density (3.5*10(+15) ph/sec/mm2) in a small focus (0.04mm x 0.08 mm FWHM vertical x horizontal) at the sample position. This spot size is well matched for use with state-of-the-art CCD-based area detectors.
Figure 1
Figure 2 Planview of the ID and BM Beamlines and the supporting Laboratory Office Module