MACROMOLECULAR CRYSTALLOGRAPHY (MX)

News: PILATUS 2M-F enables high speed protein crystallography at Swiss Light Source

Beamline X06DA (PXIII) at Swiss Light Source recently installed a PILATUS 2M-F of our Fast Series. This is the fastest detector in standard user operation at a macromolecular crystallography beamline to date. In addition to the superior data quality of all DECTRIS hybrid-pixel detectors, the PILATUS 2M-F features a maximum readout speed of 60 full frames per second or 190 frames per second for a selected region of interest. Furthermore, the new 450 µm sensors guarantee excellent Quantum Efficiency at short wavelength.

PILATUS 6M

The PILATUS 6M detector was developed for MX, the most important application at modern synchrotrons. The crystallization of the biomolecules takes months to years, whereas the measurements only take minutes to hours. In order to solve the molecular structures, the scientist needs the best possible data quality, i.e. each X-ray which is scattered by the sample must be recorded.
DECTRIS detector systems are optimally fulfilling this requirement:
With its high quantum efficiency of 100% at 8keV and 75% at 12 keV, the exposure times can be minimized, which significantly reduces the radiation damage to the crystal. In addition the large detector area with a large number of pixels and small point-spread function (PSF) allows to resolve many orders of reflections. The high dynamic range of 1 million (20 bits) per image permits the precise detection of weak and strong signals. The high frame rate combined with the short readout time reduces the measurement times dramatically.

The PILATUS 6M detector is especially tailored to collect fine phisliced crystallographic data at high speed in the continuous sample rotation mode. In this mode, the crystal is rotated by a fraction of its mosaic spread (0.02-0.2°) during each frame, leading to thousands of images for a 180° rotation. Such an experiment is very time-consuming with a CCD detector, due to the long readout times. With the PILATUS 6M detector the crystal can be rotated continuously in the beam without opening and closing the shutter for each frame and waiting for the associated additional spindle movement. Compared to exposure times of >100 ms, the short readout time of 3 ms does not compromise the data. And most importantly, unlike CCD detectors, the PILATUS detector does not add any noise to the data during readout.

Recommended systems

• PILATUS 6M
• PILATUS 2M