In This Issue

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 Welcome to the Rigaku Newsletter

 A Word From Our President

July and August were busy months for Rigaku and I would like to thank everyone for visiting our exhibitions at meetings ranging from Semicon West in San Francisco, the ACA in Covington, Kentucky, the Denver X-ray Conference in Denver (believe it or not it is not always in Denver), the ECM in South Africa, AsCA'03/Crystal 23 in Australia and the ACS in New York. I hope that everyone had an opportunity to see and discuss the latest instrumentation offerings with our courteous staff, but if not, it is actually a nice time of year to visit our Houston facility.

Starting October 1, R/MSC launches a new business venture with the creation of the ActiveSight division. ActiveSight will be a CRO (Contract Research Organization) catering to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Headed up by Duncan McRee and located in San Diego, ActiveSight will expand the scope and depth of Rigaku's structural biology business. More on this in future issues.

Paul Swepston, President

Confocal Max-Flux^® Optics

The Ultimate HomeLab is based around two MicroMax^®-007 generators, the newest in Rigaku's family of high-flux reliable X-ray sources.

For high-throughput applications, one generator is configured with a molybdenum rotating anode, VariMax™ Mo optics and a Saturn 70, the most sensitive small molecule CCD detector available today.

For maximum versatility, the second generator is configured with a copper rotating anode, VariMax Cu optics and an R-AXIS RAPID, the most versatile detector available. With this system you can perform a wide range of applications, including routine structure analysis, fast absolute configuration studies, high pressure investigations, twinned sample analyses and data collection on small proteins.

An X-Stream™ 2000 allows you to perform select experiments at cryogenic temperatures.

>>> Click here for More information

Contract Services

Did you know that AMIA Laboratories, a Rigaku Company, has recently been certified to handle and analyze controlled substances through the Federal DEA and the DPS? We are registered to handle all substances found in the categories of Schedules II through V. Visit our web site: www.amialabs.com.

Ph: 281-364-3606

 Email: amia@rigaku.com

Calendar of Events

Annual Fun Run Winners

Rigaku was involved in several scientific presentations at the ACA meeting in Covington, KY in July. In the session Future Strategies for Successful Crystallographic Computing Jim Pflugrath gave a well-balanced presentation entitled There is No Such Thing as Free Software. This presentation on software development was based on Jim's two decades of experience in both the academic and industrial sector. Boris Verman of Osmic, Inc., gave a detailed presentation entitled New X-ray Optics for Protein Crystallography. This presentation described the variable divergence multilayer optics Osmic (VariMaxTM) has developed for macromolecular crystallography. Felicitas Bidlack of George Washington University gave a presentation on Maturation Effects on the Chemical and Crystallographic Changes in Mammalian Teeth Enamel. This presentation was derived from a collaboration between GWU, The Carnegie Institute of Washington and Rigaku. Finally, Lee Daniels gave an enlightening presentation on a Straightforward Approach to Indexing and Integrating Reflections from Modulated Structures using the well-known example of thiourea. This lecture

Rigaku would like to congratulate everyone who participated in our 2003 Fun Run, but we have a little problem. We know that the women's winner was Janet Newman (left, top) but we somehow neglected to get the name of our men's winner (left, bottom). Do you know who this is? If so, e-mail Sue Duncan!

Rigaku News

ActiveSight

Starting October 1, 2003 there will be a new division of Rigaku called ActiveSight. This division will be structured as a CRO (Contract Research Organization) and will cater to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. The laboratory will be located in San Diego and will include a molecular biology lab for cloning, expression, and protein purification, a fully automated crystallization robotic system as well as an automated X-ray lab. ActiveSight will be headed up by Duncan McRee and the crystallographic activities will be lead by Les Tari. 

The 2003 Denver X-ray Conference, held at the Tech Center in Denver, Colorado, was an exciting event for the Rigaku X-ray Fluorescence Department this year. It was at DXC 2003 that Rigaku introduced the latest and greatest WDXRF instrumentation available on the market today. Met with rave reviews from both industry experts and XRF scientists, the ZSX Primus is the most revolutionary XRF system to date. This powerful 4 kW spectrometer has the thinnest (30 microns) end-window tube available, guaranteeing superb light-element analysis. The smaller, more compact He seal of the goniometer chamber and field upgradeable Mapping and Micro Analysis Packages makes the ZSX Primus the #1 answer to ALL your X-ray needs! Requests for the ZSX Primus brochure and quotations, show that the industry has been waiting for a spectrometer capable of easily analyzing even the most complex sample. The ZSX Primus is just the spectrometer to give the industry what it wants.

Also presented at DXC 2003 was a poster titled XRF analysis for refractory samples by fusion bead method in various dilution ratio with synthetic calibration standards and dilution ratio's correction, which was highly acclaimed by all attendees. The preparation method (fusion) allows for numerous refractory materials to be run with one analytical routine. Normally each refractory material had to be run separately. With this method you can analyze four different types of refractory materials successfully with the same calibrations. Rigaku XRF Department will continue to refine and include other refractory materials in the same routine.

>>> Click here for More information

New addition to the NitroGen line of liquid nitrogen generators

We have now expanded our liquid nitrogen generators to include a 20 liter per day system.  This unit, like our 10 and 40 liter per day units, is available fully self contained with an internal nitrogen gas separator and liquid nitrogen storage. It only needs cooling water and electricity to operate.

Our liquid nitrogen generators are very convenient, quiet, automatic and are designed to eliminate the need of handling dewars and running cryo-lines for laboratory applications. Within their capacity they act as endless dewars, delivering liquid nitrogen when and where it is needed.

The NitroGen line of liquid nitrogen generators are comparable in costs to commercially delivered liquid nitrogen.  When the internal costs of the dewar method are considered, including, uncertain delivery, unexpected run out, handling, risks to equipment, down time and safety hazards, these systems can become very cost effective.

Rigaku's introduction of the Ultima III at the Denver X-ray conference, once again has shown the responsiveness Rigaku has to the changing world of materials analysis. The addition of SAXS and in-plane measurement capabilities as options for a standard q:q instrument is revolutionary. No longer does a laboratory need to purchase two instruments or venture to the synchrotron for these measurements.

SAXS
The SAXS option was added in response to those researchers performing nanoparticle measurements. In order to better understand the complete morphology of a nanoparticle system, both the wide and small angle X-ray portions of the scattering curves need to be measured. The SAXS portion is used in determining long periods spacing which include particle-particle interactions and particle size. The wide angle portion is used in determining the crystallographic phase, crystallite size, percent crystallinity, etc. Both these measurements as well as other analytical techniques such as EM, AFM, and laser light scattering help characterize the physical dimensions of the nanoparticle systems. The SAXS option is also extended to reflection modes to investigate particle/pore sizes in thin films on substrates including liquid surfaces.

In-Plane
The in-plane scattering attachment, rotation of the detector parallel to a sample surface, extends the analysis of thin films as well. While most laboratory work has been performed by diffractometer geometries working perpendicular to the surface, measurements at synchrotrons have included in-plane scattering as a method to obtain information directly from scattering in the sample plane of a thin film. As films become thinner, the diffraction information normal to the plane either becomes weak, broad due to small crystallite size or directionally amorphous. Many properties are based on in-plane structures more than out-of-plane structure. With the advent of the Ultima III diffraction system, in-plane diffraction can now be performed in a laboratory setting. Thus the researcher can measure the in-plane crystallographic phase as a function of depth, periodic spacing, preferred orientation, stress, and more.  There is no need to remove the in-plane attachment for conventional diffraction experiments, this mode is only a slit change away.

Rigaku's Ultima III has also responded to researchers' needs for parallel to focusing beam conversion speed. A new CBO, combined optical system, optic was designed to give both a focusing and a parallel beam in one module. With a quick flip of a slit, the two optical configurations are switched. No hardware to exchange.

>>> Click here for More information

Training Sessions

• XRF: October 28-30, 2003
• XRD (MiniFlex™): October 8-9, 2003
• XRD (Ultima and MultiFlex): December 9-11, 2003
• Macromolecular: March 24-26, 2004

Rigaku hosted its largest ever Customer Training Course in September. With 18 trainees from as far away as India and Singapore, this course provided hands-on training for routine tasks (filament changes, anode rebuild and optics alignment) as well as troubleshooting and preventative maintenance instruction. Rigaku applications scientists gave in-depth training in the use of CrystalClear™, d*TREK^® and HKL2000™. Trainees pronounced the course a resounding success. Our next training course is scheduled for March 24-26, 2004. 

>>> Click here for More information

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