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Note that MASSIF-3 is not a fully automatic beamline (unlike MASSIF-1) and is operated by local or remote users (like ID29 and ID23-1/2).

Latest news: Since March 2017, a FlexHCD sample changer has been installed on MASSIF-3, which can contain up to 6 SC3-type pucks and 17 UniPucks.

Since Feb. 5th 2016, an Eiger 4M detector has been installed on MASSIF-3, which can record up to 750 images per second. Note that the recorded images are in the HDF5 format.

The MASSIF (Massively Automated Sample Selection Integrated Facility) suite of beam lines comprises three individual end-stations, MASSIF-1, MASSIF-2 and MASSIF-3, all located at the first branch of ID30. All three beam lines run at a fixed photon energy slightly above the selenium absorption edge.

The third endstation MASSIF-3, in user operation since December 2014, offers a small X-ray beam (15 µm diameter) at a fixed energy (12.8 keV), and is dedicated to perform experiments with small protein crystals. MASSIF-3 is equipped with a Eiger1 X 4M and a MD2 micro-diffractomer and a FlexHCD sample changer (for up to 6 SC3-type pucks and 17 UniPucks).

The optical design of MASSIF-3 makes use of a horizontally diffraction Si (111) monochromator, and compound refractive lenses (CRLs) and a half-Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) geometry as the vertical and horizontal focusing systems, respectively. The X-ray sources for the three stations are canted undulators mounted on a special carriage on the storage ring. The MASSIF-3 undulator is a U21.2. It is a pseudo-monochromatic source with a single first harmonic at 12.9 keV. An overview of the setup of the optical and experimental hutches can be found here.

Scientific Applications

Protein crystal samples are becoming ever smaller, with today's samples being typically around 10 to 100 microns in size. MASSIF-3 offers a very intense focused beam of 15 µm in size (FWHM) to allow to quickly analyse protein microcrystals, using advanced features like mesh scans. The possibility to additionally record fluorescence and UV/Vis absorption spectra makes MASSIF-3 a great tool for sample evaluation.

Available Techniques