The macromolecular neutron diffractometer at the spallation neutron source

Abstract The Macromolecular Neutron Diffractometer known as MaNDi is located on beamline 11B of the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Neutrons are produced in discrete pulses at the Spallation Neutron Source, which enables Laue diffraction data through measuring the time-of-flight and thus wavelength of each diffracted neutron. The MaNDi diffractometer is optimized to collect diffraction data from protein crystals with unit cell axes between 30 and 300 A. The instrument is designed to provide flexibility in several instrumental parameters such as wavelength bandwidth and beam divergence to allow data collection from a range systems. Data collection is possible at room temperature or 100 K using a standard nitrogen gas stream cooler combined with standard X-ray style mounting pins and loops.