A compact superconducting ring as a radiation source for X-ray crystallography

A compact superconducting storage ring installed at Ritsumeikan University is operated at an electron-beam energy of 0.575 GeV and an initial beam current of 300 mA. The radius of the circular electron orbit is as small as 0.5 m, suggesting that the radiation emitted contains short-wavelength components. With an imaging plate as a detector, X-ray precession diffraction patterns were recorded for organic single crystals within a reasonable period of time using radiation of wavelength 0.155 nm (8 keV) to 0.248 nm (5 keV). The use of the radiation in the structural study of organic crystals containing 3d metal atoms using the phenomena of anomalous scattering is described. If appropriately planned, X-ray diffraction and/or scattering experiments can be made at the compact ring without recourse to a large-scale ring.