Technical Report: Recent Major Improvements to the ALS Sector 5 Macromolecular Crystallography Beamlines

Abstract

Although the Advanced Light Source (ALS) was initially conceived primarily as a low-energy (1.9-GeV) third-generation source of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and soft X-ray radiation, it was realized very early in the development of the facility that a multipole wiggler source coupled with high-quality (brightness-preserving) optics would result in a beamline whose performance across the optimal energy range (5–15 keV) for macromolecular crystallography (MX) would be comparable to, or even exceed, that of many existing crystallography beamlines at higher-energy facilities. Hence, starting in 1996, a suite of three beamlines, branching off a single wiggler source, was constructed, which together formed the ALS Macromolecular Crystallography Facility [1]. From the outset, this facility was designed to cater equally to the needs of both academic and industrial users, with a heavy emphasis placed on the development and introduction of high-throughput crystallographic tools, techniques, and facilities, including large-area CCD detectors, robotic sample-handling and automounting facilities [2], a service crystallography program, and a tightly integrated, centralized, and highly automated beamline control environment for users.