Goniometers

Rigaku designs and manufactures a range of goniometers that offers different capabilities to accommodate a wide range of applications. Single crystal diffraction experiments require accurate and reproducible positioning and movement of the crystal during data collection so that reflections that can be accurately recorded by a sensitive Rigaku detector.

The Rigaku Saturn and Mercury CCD detectors can be integrated with three different goniometers.

• AFC-10: 3-axis, fixed χ goniometer
• AFC-11: 4-axis, partial χ goniometer
• AFC-Kappa: 4-axis κ goniometer

All three AFC goniometers feature motorized, computer controlled axes and crystal-to-detector distance. Control software calculates data collection strategies that ensure complete data sets and that the desired level of redundancy is achieved for each sample.

The R-AXIS IV++ and R-AXIS HTC imaging  plate detectors require different goniometers and crystal-to-detector sleds due to their larger size and weight. However, the much larger active area of the R-AXIS detectors means that for most protein samples it is not necessary to move the crystal in χ or the detector in 2θ.

The R-AXIS IV++ and R-AXIS HTC can be integrated with one of two goniometers.

• Single φ vertical goniometer (which can be optionally inverted using the inverse φ bracket)
• 3-axis partial χ goniometer

R-AXIS goniometers feature motorized axes and control software that calculates data collection strategies and ensures complete data sets and the desired level of redundancy are achieved for each sample. Optional 2θ and motorized crystal-to-detector sleds are available for both the R-AXIS IV++ and the R-AXIS HTC.