We provide mail-in access for the following measurements:

• High Resolution Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD)
• Pair Distribution Function (PDF)
• Small and Wide Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS/WAXS)

The mailing address for your sample shipment is,

Canadian Light Source
Attn: (Beamline scientists name here), Project: (Your project number here)
44 Innovation Blvd
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
S7N 2V3
Canada

Please do not wait until the very last minute to mail your samples, especially when shipping to us from outside Canada.

Industrial Mail-In Program

The Industrial Science Group (ISG) at the CLS offers an option for mail-in data collection with a fast turn around time and no need to have a proposal go through the peer review process. Samples can be loaded either by the customer or by CLS staff. As this is a paid service, industrial clients have no obligation to publish the results. Many academic users also find this service useful due to its fast turn around time and avoidance of a proposal. Data is usually collected within a few days to a few weeks of receiving the samples, except during periods of extended maintenance. Data is generally only collected in standard configurations at set energies. Please contact Joel Reid at Joel.Reid@lightsource.ca for pricing. We are also happy to do more complex experiments or analyze the data for you. See the ISG website for more details.

Academic Mail-In Program

Academic users can submit a rapid access proposal through the user portal for fast turn-around mail-in. Users must write the short proposal that should justify why is synchrotron-quality data required. Projects that can be completed using laboratory quality data are not suitable for this program. They should also justify why rapid access is required, rather than using the general user proposal method. Users may not use this program more than once per run cycle (typically 6 months) and no more than two proposals from the same research group are accepted in a run cycle. Projects involving more samples than listed for the technique, or ones that require more complex setups should be submitted as general user proposals.

For PXRD, choose the WLE beamline. Mail-in PXRD proposals are limited to 40 ambient condition measurements. Data collection is typically at ambient temperature, however we can also mesure at any sample temperature between 80 K and 500 K, for a smaller number of samples. Inquiries regarding this program can be directed to Adam Leontowich. Sample preparation instructions for high-resolution PXRD can be found on the WLE beamline webpage. 

Note that the photon energy for the high-resolution PXRD endstation is fixed at 15.1 keV. It is important for users to calculate the photo-absorption of their samples at that energy. Samples with a calculated absorption >3 must be diluted for best results (explained further on the PXRD section of the WLE webpage). In certain cases where sample absorption or fluorescence is found to be problematic, we may suggest measuring PXRD on the WHE beamline which has much higher energy, although the q resolution will not be as high as WLE.

For PDF, choose the WHE beamline. PDF proposals are limited to 19 non-grainy samples, or 6 if the samples are grainy and require the capillaries to be spun. Measurements will be done only at ambient conditions, using 55, 60, or 65 keV X-rays. Users should load capillaries into Kapton capillaries themselves prior to shipping, see the WHE beamline page of this website for instruction on how to purchase and preapre the capillaries. Inquiries regarding this program can be directed to Graham King.

For SAXS/WAXS, choose the WLE beamline. Mail-in SAXS/WAXS proposals are limited to 10 samples. Measurements will be done only at ambient conditions, using 9.8 keV or 18.8 keV. Inquiries regarding this program can be directed to Adam Leontowich.