A new neutron single-crystal diffractometer dedicated for biological macromolecules (BIX-4).
A new neutron single-crystal diffractometer (BIX-4) has been constructed at 1G-B port of JRR-3M in JAERI. Since at 1G-B port another diffractometer for biology, BIX-3, and a high-resolution powder diffractometer (HRPD) coexist, the monochromator house needed to be reconstructed. The main architecture of BIX-4 is based on that of BIX-3. BIX-4 uses an elastically-bent perfect-Si crystal monochromator and neutron imaging plates as BIX-3. In addition, several optimizations of the monochromator and modifications from previous BIX-3 are carried out. The final gain of the neutron intensity at the detector position is estimated to be 2.5 times larger than previous BIX-3. That higher performance increases the opportunities to apply neutron crystallography to biological macromolecules which give only weak reflections and/or small crystals.
Kurihara
Kazuo
K
Neutron Science Research Center, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, Tokai, Ibaraki 319-1195, Japan. kurihara@kotai3.jaeri.go.jp
Tanaka
Ichiro
I
Niimura
Nobuo
N
Refai Muslih
Muhammad
M
Ostermann
Andreas
A
D001704:Biopolymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D033363:Neutron Diffraction / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
D001704:Biopolymers; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D011506:Proteins