A neutron image plate quasi-Laue diffractometer for protein crystallography

An instrument which is based on image plate technology has been constructed to perform cold neutron Laue crystallography on protein structures. The crystal is mounted at the center of a cylindrical detector which is 400mm long and has a circumference of 1000mm, with gadolinium oxide-containing image plates mounted on its exterior surface. Laue images registered on the plate are read out by rotating the drum and translating a laser read head parallel to the cylinder axis, giving a pixel size of 200 microm x 200 microm and a total read time of 5 minutes. Preliminary results indicate that it should be possible to obtain a complete data set from a protein crystal to atomic resolution in about two weeks.