title: Anti-contamination device for cryogenic soft X-ray diffraction microscopy.
abstract: Cryogenic microscopy allows one to view frozen hydrated biological and soft matter specimens with good structural preservation and a high degree of stability against radiation damage. We describe a liquid nitrogen-cooled anti-contamination device for cryogenic X-ray diffraction microscopy. The anti-contaminator greatly reduces the buildup of ice layers on the specimen due to condensation of residual water vapor in the experimental vacuum chamber. We show by coherent X-ray diffraction measurements that this leads to fivefold reduction of background scattering, which is important for far-field X-ray diffraction microscopy of biological specimens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaojing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Huijie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Steinbrener
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.forename: Janos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kirz
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jacobsen