Sample Holders

Here you will find information on the different types of sample holders we have available at the SSRL XRF imaging beamlines

We have a range of sample holders available and we have designed our sample mounting systems to:

1) Be cheap, reproducible and easy to modify for various sample types by using 3D printing. Please reach out to us to talk about your needs.

2) Be compatible across our 4 beam lines, as well as in our lab based instruments including our FTIR and Sigray Attomap.

3) Have various iterations that can be quickly and easily swapped out depending on sample formats without needing to move components or significant realignments.

Cassette

Our primary sample holder is the "cassette". We have many variations on this cassette for different sample types. These cassettes push fit into either a wheel (for beam line 2-3 and 14-3) or in a row (at 7-2 and 6-2). Below is a CAD viewer with all our current cassette options. Please reach out to the beam line staff if you would like to develop a cassette for your own samples. At the bottom of these pages CAD models available for download.

Wheel

The sample wheel is our primary sample system at 2-3 and 14-3 for holding multiple cassettes. This wheel is attached to a rotation stage via kinematic mounts (magnets) for easy loading and unloading of the wheel. The rotation itself is attached to the main XYZ stage.

This allows multiple samples to be loaded at once which minimizes entries into the hutch. The wheel is also programmable into the Master Data Queue, so the wheel can automatically rotate to the next sample.

We also have a version of this wheel which can be nitrogen purged (see CAD View below) for samples that are sensitive to oxidation but sample size must not extend past the outer diameter of the wheel.