Starting, running and finishing a project with X-ray

The first step is to make sure that the Zeiss Xradia Versa 520 is the right machine for your research purpose. Below are some factors to take into consideration.

X-ray source

• Microfocus tungsten X-ray source
• Energy range: 10.0 - 160.0 keV

Detector

• Scintillator-based camera with 4 different objectives: 0.4x, 4x, 20x and 40x
• CCD: 2048 x 2048 pixels, 13.5 µm pixel size
• Field of view (FOV): adjustable between approximately 0.5 mm to 50 mm. Stitching is possible to extend the FOV further.
• Effective pixel sizes adjustable between approximately 0.1 µm and 34 µm (if no binning). It depends on the objective (optical magnification) and the distances between the source, sample and detector (geometrical magnification).
• Spatial resolution: approximately 0.7 µm in 2D, about 1 µm in 3D.

Sample preparation

• Up to 14 automatic-loading sample holders
• Mechanical loading stages can be mounted, consulting with SUBIC staff
• Staining may be recommended for imaging small and complex soft tissues. SUBIC cannot supply staining chemicals at the moment.

To start an X-ray project at SUBIC, please follow step 1-5.

1. For unexperienced users, please check if your scan task is feasible to perform with our machine. If necessary, please contact Tunhe Zhou, tunhe.zhou@su.se, for discussion and possible test scan.
2. For researchers and users from outside of Stockholm University, please contact SUBIC director Rita Almeida, rita.almeida@su.se, to make a contract for the usage of the X-ray machine. The price for researchers is listed here. Note: The 18% overhead cost for external institutes is not included, hence for private companies the price is different.
3. To book the machine, use the SUBIC online booking system Calpendo.
   To Calpendo
4. Contact the SUBIC lab manager at subic@su.se to request for an access card to enter SUBIC.
5. During the experiment, please follow the guidelines from Zeiss for better image quality and for safety measures. You can find the guidelines in the X-ray imaging lab. To protect your samples and the machine, please make sure the sample does not hit the source or detector during rotation. In case of emergency, please press the emergency buttons to stop the motors or the whole system.
6. After finishing the experiment, please remove your samples and copy your data to your hard drive. Any loss of samples or data cannot be recovered.

Safety

To ensure radiation safety the Zeiss Xradia Versa 520 is an enclosed system with lead shield and interlocks The radiation level is monitored to be under a safe level.

• Emergency buttons can stop all motors and electricity to protect the machine and the operators.
• First aid is located in the kitchen.

Enjoy the experiment and we wish you success with all your research endeavors!

You are encouraged to mention SUBIC in the acknowledgements and/or material and methods section in your paper.

Acknowledgement should be addressed similar to this sentence:

“Data acquisition supported by a grant to the Stockholm University Brain Imaging Centre (SU FV-5.1.2-1035-15).”

You are also required to report your publications and posters back to us: subic@su.se

We will link to your publication at su.se/subic as well as tweet it, promoting your study further. We require that publications and posters are reported to us because Stockholm University is supplementing the cost of using SUBICs equipment, thereby sponsoring your research. Moreover, SUBIC is every year evaluated by the research output originating from the use of our facility meaning that our future existence is dependent on our users reporting their research output back to us.

Thank you in advance for your help with this matter.