Hexi: The High-energy Electron Xtallography Instrument

TUP32
16 Sept 2025, 17:00
1h
Poster Session Room (The Loop)

Poster Session Room

The Loop

Poster Presentation Beamlines and Instruments Tuesday Poster Session

Speaker

Michela Semeraro (Diamond Light Source)

Description

The High-energy Electron Xtallography Instrument (HeXI), currently under construction at Diamond, is set to expand the range of samples suitable for structure determination via electron diffraction. Funded by the Wellcome Trust's “Electrifying Life Sciences” grant and Diamond Light Source, the HeXI project will utilize Mega-electron-volt (MeV) electrons to bridge the crystal size gap between electron and X-ray scattering. This will enable the determination of structures from crystals ranging between 300 nm and 3 μm. HeXI incorporates a tunable electron source, adjustable between 100 kV and 1 MeV, along with bespoke collimation and magnetic lenses, capable of achieving the precise optical properties necessary to interrogate nanometer-scale crystals within an in-vacuum sample environment. This first-of-its-kind instrument will combine the unique sensitivity of electrons to structural information with the advanced goniometry developed at Diamond for macromolecular X-ray crystallography to enhance overall data quality. In this poster, we will explore the design of this 7-meter-long electron beamline and its main challenges.

Author

Michela Semeraro (Diamond Light Source)

Co-authors

Alistair Siebert (Diamond Light Source) Graham Duller (Diamond Light Source) Khairul Sojib (Diamond Light Source) Michael Esnouf (Diamond Light Source) Pedro Nunes (Diamond Light Source) Richard Littlewood (Diamond Light Source) William Norman (Diamond Light Source)

Presentation materials

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