We purchased Rigaku Smartlab 3 diffractometer in 2012, with installation in January 2013. The diffractometer was selected after a long selection process considering available instruments on the marked. The installed diffractometer is equipped with:
- 9kW rotating anode Cu x-ray source,
- in-plane detector arm,
- cross-beam optics allowing for parallel beam as well as Bragg-Brentano setup
- Ge (220)x2 and Ge (220)x4 monochromators, and Ge (220)x2 analyzer
- high-temperature chamber Anton Paar OHS 1100
Later we have purchased a two-dimensional detector HyPix 3000, since it was not available at the time of the original installation. The instrument is installed in a core facility laboratory serving a wide group of users from many different institutes with a variety of needs in analysis of epitaxial and polycrystalline thin film, nanoparticles and even defects in monocrystals.
The big advantages of the instrument are especially the in-plane arm, allowing for non-coplanar X-ray diffraction measurements without tilting the sample, and easy procedures for X-ray optics exchange and realignment. The intuitive control software is easy to run simple routine experiments of less advanced users. On the other hand, individual predefined measurements can be easily chained to macros for more advanced experiments
.To conclude, the staff of our X-ray laboratory core facility, as well as the visiting users of our core facility, are satisfied with diffractometer Rigaku Smartlab.