SEMINAR: Bayliss Seminar Series

The Western Australian Small Angle X-Ray Facility is based at Curtin University and has been the providing the local research community with the instrumentation and experience necessary for SAXS experiments in Western Australia since it was established in 2002. Due to the limitations of hardware available at the time experiments involving soft matter samples were generally out of reach of the facility. To better serve the needs of the expanding local SAXS community the instrument at the heart of the facility was upgraded in March this year via a successful LIEF grant led by Prof Craig Buckley. Amongst the hardware improvements the most significant is the state of the art x-ray source, the MetalJet from Excillum. The liquid metal anode gives unparalleled brightness from a laboratory x-ray source and the facility houses one of four such instruments in the world with a MetalJet x-ray source and Brukers Nanostar SAXS system. In addition to the x-ray source there have been improvements in the optics that form the primary beam and in the detection of scattered x-rays. This presentation will cover some of the basic aspects of a SAXS experiment as well as some specific applications to soft matter systems and biological samples.

Presenter Biography

Dr Kevin Jarrett completed his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in physics at Curtin University, completing his thesis in 2011. After a stint working in engineering consultancy he returned to Curtin University as a staff member in 2013 providing technical support to Hydrogen Storage Research Group and the Trace Research Advanced Clean Environment. In 2015 Kevin moved into a role dedicated to supporting the hydrogen group and preparing for the arrival of the new instrument in the WA SAXS Facility where he is now the scientific officer.