Journal of Applied Crystallography

Volume 26, Part 6 (December 1993)


short communications



J. Appl. Cryst. (1993). 26, 839-842    [ doi:10.1107/S0021889893005552 ]

A fast and portable microspectrophotometer for protein crystallography

A. Hadfield and J. Hajdu

Abstract: Spectroscopic measurements on crystals during X-ray data collection provide additional information on the composition of the crystal and can be used in the interpretation of structural data. This paper describes a portable microspectrophotometer to obtain UV-visible-near-IR spectra from single crystals during X-ray measurements. The instrument consists of a deuterium lamp, optical fibres, a pair of mirror lenses and a monochromator equipped with a photodiode array detector. Spectra can be recorded in short periods of time (a few milliseconds) from a measurement area of 0.10 mm diameter or smaller. The device can be used to monitor spectral changes in crystals during time-resolved X-ray experiments so that the X-ray camera can be triggered at the right moment as determined by the spectrum, thereby eliminating much of the present guesswork from such studies.

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