• Send, S.; Abboud, A.; Leitenberger, W.; Weiss, M.S.; Hartmann, R.; Strüder, L.; Pietsch, U.: Analysis of polycrystallinity in hen egg-white lysozyme using a pnCCD. Journal of Applied Crystallography 45 (2012), p. 517-522

10.1107/S0021889812015038

Abstract:
A crystal of hen egg-white lysozyme was analyzed by means of energy-dispersive X-ray Laue diffraction with white synchrotron radiation at 2.7 A ° resolution using a pnCCD detector. From Laue spots measured in a single exposure of the arbitrarily oriented crystal, the lattice constants of the tetragonal unit cell could be extracted with an accuracy of about 2.5%. Scanning across the sample surface, Laue images with split reflections were recorded at various positions. The corresponding diffraction patterns were generated by two crystalline domains with a tilt of about 1 relative to each other. The obtained results demonstrate the potential of the pnCCD for fast X-ray screening of crystals of macromolecules or proteins prior to conventional X-ray structure analysis. The described experiment can be automatized to quantitatively characterize imperfect single crystals or polycrystals.