Sample Stages and Specimen Holders

Bruker’s sample stages provide a high degree of sample manipulation accuracy. Choose from bayonet mounted stages and floor mounted stages, depending on the required degrees of freedom and sample dimensions. Since all stages are part of the DIFFRAC.DAVINCI concept, the component and its motorized drives are automatically recognized and configured on mounting.

The Universal Motion Concept (UMC) ensures that the area of interest is held in the goniometer center as the sample is moved in a myriad of directions, using up to five degrees of freedom from Phi rotation, to XYZ translation, and Psi tilt.

The bayonet mounted Eulerian cradles support applications such as stress, texture, and epitaxial thin film analysis, including at non-ambient conditions.
The functionality of the stages can be adapted to suit changing needs. Our wide range of accessories includes XY- and tilt stages, capillary mounts and wafer chucks.

Add to that Bruker’s large portfolio of specimen holders, and it’s guaranteed that any sample - whether it is inorganic or organic, available in small or large quantities, bulk or powder – can be mounted and measured with the optimal instrument configuration.

The bayonet mount of the stage allows fast and accurate exchange of the entire sample stage at the goniometer for maximum experimental flexibility.

Our motorized XYZ translation stages include the Compact UMC and the Compact UMC Plus 80/150. The UMC stages are generally used for the analysis of large bulk samples, mapping applications and coating analysis, but can also be used for multiple smaller samples or to host dome temperature stages for non-ambient experiments. In addition, the Compact UMC Plus 150/80 stages have unlimited Phi rotation. The UMC 150 also includes utility feedthroughs that prevents vacuum pipe and electrical lines tangling.

The bayonet mounted Compact Cradle (Plus) and the Centric Eulerian Cradle support applications such as stress, texture, and epitaxial thin film analysis, including at non-ambient conditions using dome temperature chambers. Various stage accessories are available to mount even irregularly shaped samples, and a vacuum feedthrough on the Compact Cradle Plus hold small thin film specimens securely in place.

Base mounted stages are available on the D8 DISCOVER diffractometer family for large sized samples and when heavy lifting is required. Our UMC series offers unrivaled mapping and weight capacity, enabling large area mapping of samples weighing up to 5 kg and measuring up to 300mm. All stages allow motorized positioning and scanning of samples in X, Y and Z. The UMC 350 and the UMC 1516 include also a Psi-tilt as an additional degree of freedom for stress, texture and epitaxial thin film analysis.

Specialty stages are available for dedicated applications, such as the UMC 150 HTS for high throughput well plate analysis. To add even more functionality, accessories such as capillary spinners, vacuum chucks and non-ambient chambers can be mounted on top of the UMC stages. Due to their high modularity, the UMC stages can be further customized to match user requirements that go beyond standard configurations.

These components are attached on top of most materials research stages to offer simple, secure sample mounting and additional degrees of freedom. The gallery below shows a selection of available stage attachments.

The FLIP-STICK and AUTO-CHANGER offer a large storage capacity of up to 90 samples for completely unattended handling of batch measurements. Being fully integrated into the DAVINCI.DESIGN plug & play concept, these sample changers offer unrivalled analytical flexibility. A wide range of different specimens and specimen holders can be measured in both reflection and transmission geometry, using focusing and parallel beam optics. The magazines of the sample changers are easily exchangeable, even when loaded with samples. This allows pre-loading of additional magazines while other measurements are running, thus increasing sample throughput.

X-ray diffraction does not require any complex sample preparation, but depending on e.g. sample consistency, volume, or other property, an appropriate specimen holder is required. A selection of Bruker AXS numerous dedicated solutions for the different types of specimen is shown below.