Two approaches to the design of a diamond sensor signal path were explored using high-intensity X-ray pulses from the LINAC Coherent Light Source at SLAC. Results on the charge-collection efficiency and signal collection time are presented over a range of approximately four orders of magnitude in the generated electron–hole plasma density.

Fluorescence detector strategies are compared for dilute XAFS samples on high flux beamlines.

VMXi, a new tunable beamline dedicated to fully automatic screening and data collection from crystals in situ, is reported.

The performances of new travelling-heater-method-grown CZT detectors, recently developed at IMEM-CNR (Parma, Italy), are presented. The detectors, characterized by low leakage currents at room temperature (4.7 nA cm⁻² at 1000 V cm⁻¹), allow good room-temperature operation even at high bias voltages (>7000 V cm⁻¹).

SPring-8 BL41XU provides a high-flux X-ray beam of size 10-50 µm, and enables high-quality diffraction data to be obtained from various types of protein crystals. Details of this beamline and an upgrade project are described.

Optimizations and characterization are described for a state-of-the-art laboratory small-angle X-ray scattering instrument equipped with a Ga metal-jet source at Aarhus University.

A beamline design that produces micro-scale beams from a bending magnet without significant flux loss through apertures is presented. An optical study based on this design is detailed, for tender X-rays spectroscopy, including conventional XAFS, scanning micro-XAFS and full-field nano-XAFS, with flux of the order of 10¹² photons s⁻¹.

A high-flux Ge(111) X-ray beam compressing channel-cut monochromator with high compression ratio based on a strongly asymmetric diffraction was designed and successfully realized by a pilot application of the single-point diamond technology. Comparative testing demonstrates the potential of the new design and related technology, with direct implications for high-throughput X-ray laboratory setups, in particular those with microfocus X-ray sources.

A monolithic Wolter-type mirror with large acceptance, achromatism and small comatic aberration was designed and evaluated at the soft X-ray beamline BL25SU of SPring-8.

The HETU neutron diffractometer has been developed to enable a high instrument resolution measurement mode or a high neutron flux mode, with use of a double-focusing perfect single-crystal silicon monochromator or a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite monochromator, for investigations of residual stress and texture of engineering materials and components.