FIREPOD (under construction)

FIREPOD

FIREPOD (FIne REsolution POwder Diffractometer) is a dedicated high-throughput powder diffractometer on the thermal beam tube SR-8a. Its main field of application is the analysis of the crystal structure of modern polycrystalline materials, whereby it is ideally suited for a variety of fast parametric studies and investigations on large sample series.

FIREPOD is characterised by eight 2D area detectors (DENEX 300TN), each with an active area of 300 × 300 mm² and a position resolution of 2 × 3 mm². All eight detectors are placed at a fixed distance of 1375 mm from the sample, resulting in a maximum scattering angle 2θ of up to 160°. Complete coverage of this range is achieved with just two steps of the detector bank. This distance also allows for bulky sample environments (radius < 900 mm; weight < 850 kg). An oscillating radial collimator (field of view: 42 mm) suppresses parasitic scattering.

The secondary optics offer several options for beam conditioning in front of the sample. These include a HOPG filter to suppress unwanted higher-order wavelengths and a Soller collimator changer (10’ and 20’) to adjust the horizontal beam divergence. Also available is a moveable sample aperture that enables position-resolved diffraction. A six-axes robotic arm (UR10e; Universal Robotics) can be used as an automatic sample changer for the rapid measurement of very large sample series.

In the first step, FIREPOD is installed at the 112.5° exit of the existing SPODI monochromator shielding of the SR-8a beamline. At this exit angle, the Ge(551) monochromator delivers a wavelength of λ = 1.318 Å.