DIAD-Dual Imaging and Diffraction Beamline
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Open Access
Abstract: Continuous technological advancement and depleting natural sources of key metals such as gold necessitate highly selective recovery processes from secondary sources. Herein, we report the visualisation of a recyclable precipitation process using dual imaging and diffraction that gives insight into the mechanism of precipitation and highlights the possibility of kinetic separations.
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May 2026
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DIAD-Dual Imaging and Diffraction Beamline
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[39247]
Open Access
Abstract: This work presents the design and development of a 3D printed flow cell tailored for X-ray computed microtomography of liquid–solid systems. The flow cell is manufactured using stereolithographic printing and utilizes a novel pillarless pull-through geometry. The use of the flow cell developed for K-11 DIAD (Dual Imaging and Diffraction beamline, Diamond Light Source, UK) is demonstrated with the in situ flow and selective recovery of an Sn precipitate from solution using an organic ligand. The 3D designs and components are made freely available with this publication.
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Mar 2026
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DIAD-Dual Imaging and Diffraction Beamline
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[38775]
Open Access
Abstract: Understanding the interactions between microstructure, strain, phase and material behavior is crucial in scientific fields such as energy storage, carbon sequestration and biomedical engineering. However, quantifying these correlations is challenging, as it requires the use of multiple instruments and techniques, often separated by space and time. The Dual Imaging and Diffraction (DIAD) beamline at Diamond Light Source is designed to address this challenge. DIAD allows its users to visualize internal structures (in two and three dimensions), identify compositional/phase changes and measure strain. It enables in situ and operando experiments that require spatially correlated information. DIAD provides two independent beams combined at one sample position, allowing `quasi-simultaneous' X-ray computed tomography and X-ray powder diffraction. A unique functionality of the DIAD configuration is the ability to perform `image-guided diffraction', where the micrometre-sized diffraction beam is scanned over the complete area of the imaging field of view without moving the specimen. This moving-beam diffraction geometry enables the study of fast-evolving and motion-susceptible processes and samples. Here, we discuss the novel moving-beam diffraction geometry, presenting the latest findings on the reliability of both the geometry calibration and the data-reduction routines used. We provide a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the moving-beam diffraction geometry implemented at the DIAD beamline, which will serve as a reference for beamline users. Our measurements confirm that diffraction is most sensitive to the moving-beam geometry for the conventional transmission geometry of the detector. The observed data confirm that the motion of the Kirkpatrick–Baez mirror coupled with a fixed-aperture slit results in a rigid translation of the beam probe, without affecting the angle of the incident-beam path to the sample. Our measurements demonstrate that a nearest-neighbor calibration can achieve the same accuracy as a self-calibrated geometry when the distance between the calibrated and probed sample regions is smaller than or equal to the beam spot size. The absolute error of the moving-beam diffraction geometry at DIAD with typical calibration setup remains below 0.01%, which is the accuracy we observe for the beamline with stable beam operation.
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Dec 2025
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DIAD-Dual Imaging and Diffraction Beamline
I12-JEEP: Joint Engineering, Environmental and Processing
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Franck P.
Vidal
,
Shaghayegh
Afshari
,
Sharif
Ahmed
,
Alberto
Albiol
,
Francisco
Albiol
,
Éric
Béchet
,
Alberto Corbí
Bellot
,
Stefan
Bosse
,
Simon
Burkhard
,
Younes
Chahid
,
Cheng-Ying
Chou
,
Robert
Culver
,
Pascal
Desbarats
,
Lewis
Dixon
,
Johan
Friemann
,
Amin
Garbout
,
Marcos
García-Lorenzo
,
Jean-François
Giovannelli
,
Ross
Hanna
,
Clémentine
Hatton
,
Audrey
Henry
,
Graham
Kelly
,
Christophe
Leblanc
,
Alberto
Leonardi
,
Jean Michel
Létang
,
Harry
Lipscomb
,
Tristan
Manchester
,
Bas
Meere
,
Claire
Michelet
,
Simon
Middleburgh
,
Radu P.
Mihail
,
Iwan
Mitchell
,
Liam
Perera
,
Martí
Puig
,
Malek
Racy
,
Ali
Rouwane
,
Hervé
Seznec
,
Aaron
Sújar
,
Jenna
Tugwell-Allsup
,
Pierre-Frédéric
Villard
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[29820]
Open Access
Abstract: gVirtualXray (gVXR) is an open-source framework that relies on the Beer–Lambert law to simulate X-ray images in real time on a graphics processor unit (GPU) using triangular meshes. A wide range of programming languages is supported (C/C++, Python, R, Ruby, Tcl, C#, Java, and GNU Octave). Simulations generated with gVXR have been benchmarked with clinically realistic phantoms (i.e. complex structures and materials) using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, real radiographs and real digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs), and X-ray computed tomography (XCT). It has been used in a wide range of applications, including real-time medical simulators, proposing a new densitometric radiographic modality in clinical imaging, studying noise removal techniques in fluoroscopy, teaching particle physics and X-ray imaging to undergraduate students in engineering, and XCT to masters students, predicting image quality and artifacts in material science, etc. gVXR has also been used to produce a high number of realistic simulated images in optimisation problems and to train machine learning algorithms. This paper presents a comprehensive review of such applications of gVXR.
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Nov 2025
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DIAD-Dual Imaging and Diffraction Beamline
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James
Le Houx
,
Daniel
Mckay Fletcher
,
Alberto
Leonardi
,
Katherine A.
Williams
,
Nancy
Walker
,
Fernando
Alvarez-Borges
,
Ebrahim
Afsar Dizaj
,
Madhu
Murthy
,
Ronan
Smith
,
Liam
Perera
,
Navid
Aslani
,
Andrew
James
,
Sharif
Ahmed
,
Tiina
Roose
,
Siul
Ruiz
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[30961, 32138, 33343]
Open Access
Abstract: Soil compaction and escalating global drought increase soil strength and stiffness. It remains unclear which plant root biomechanical mechanisms/traits enable growth in these harsh conditions. Here, we combine synchrotron X-ray computed tomography with spatially resolved X-ray diffraction to characterize the biomechanics of a replica root-soil system. We map the strain field around the root tip analog, finding strong agreement with finite element simulations, thereby demonstrating a promising new in vivo measurement protocol.
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Jul 2025
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I11-High Resolution Powder Diffraction
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Rachael
Hamp
,
Christoph
Salzmann
,
Peter
Fawdon
,
Zachary
Amato
,
Milz
Beaumont
,
Hannah
Chinnery
,
Paul
Henry
,
Thomas
Headen
,
Liam
Perera
,
Stephen
Thompson
,
Mark
Fox-Powell
Open Access
Abstract: Sodium chloride (NaCl), the most common salt on Earth, has been detected at several icy worlds that could be habitable in the present day, including Europa [1], Enceladus [2], Ganymede [3] and Ceres [4], providing evidence that salty liquid water from their interiors has been delivered to their surfaces. Areas that have experienced the emplacement of subsurface fluids through mechanisms such as plumes could contain a record of recently exposed ocean material and thus provide information on ocean chemistry and potential habitability. Identifying such regions will be a major priority for upcoming missions such as ESA’s JUpiter ICy moons Explorer (JUICE) and NASA’s Europa Clipper.
Here, we report the discovery of a metastable NaCl dihydrate formed through rapid freezing of a NaCl solution at ambient pressure (Fig. 1) [5]. This new NaCl hydrate expands on the recently identified NaCl hydrates formed in high-pressure experiments [6], and together with these reveals a rich phase behaviour in the low temperature Na-Cl-H2O system that had been overlooked for over 200 years. Using synchrotron X-ray and neutron powder diffraction, we show that the metastable form transforms irreversibly to the stable hydrate hydrohalite above 190 K, exothermically releasing 3.47 kJ mol-1 of latent heat. Additionally, we used Raman and near-infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy to show experimentally that the solid phase composition of NaCl-bearing ices varies as a function of fluid cooling rate, promising a means of reconstructing the formation history of NaCl-bearing icy world surface materials from remote measurements of their composition.
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Jul 2025
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DIAD-Dual Imaging and Diffraction Beamline
I13-2-Diamond Manchester Imaging
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Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[32980]
Open Access
Abstract: Machine learning techniques are being increasingly applied in medical and physical sciences across a variety of imaging modalities; however, an important issue when developing these tools is the availability of good quality training data. Here we present a unique, multimodal synchrotron dataset of a bespoke zinc-doped Zeolite 13X sample that can be used to develop advanced deep learning and data fusion pipelines. Multi-resolution micro X-ray computed tomography was performed on a zinc-doped Zeolite 13X fragment to characterise its pores and features before spatially resolved X-ray diffraction computed tomography was carried out to characterise the topographical distribution of sodium and zinc phases. Zinc absorption was controlled to create a simple, spatially isolated, two-phase material. Both raw and processed data are available as a series of Zenodo entries. Altogether we present a spatially resolved, three-dimensional, multimodal, multi-resolution dataset that can be used to develop machine learning techniques. Such techniques include the development of super-resolution, multimodal data fusion, and 3D reconstruction algorithms.
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Feb 2025
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I11-High Resolution Powder Diffraction
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Rachael
Hamp
,
Christoph G.
Salzmann
,
Zachary
Amato
,
Milz L.
Beaumont
,
Hannah E.
Chinnery
,
Peter
Fawdon
,
Thomas F.
Headen
,
Paul F.
Henry
,
Liam
Perera
,
Stephen P.
Thompson
,
Mark G.
Fox-Powell
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[36314]
Open Access
Abstract: Sodium chloride (NaCl) plays an important role in geochemistry, biology, industry, and food production, and it is among the most common salts in the solar system. Here, we report the discovery of a metastable NaCl dihydrate formed through rapid freezing (101–102 K s–1) of a NaCl solution at ambient pressure. Using synchrotron X-ray and neutron powder diffraction, we show that it transforms irreversibly to hydrohalite and ice Ih above 190 K upon heating and propose it is structurally related to hydrohalite with a 3 × 1 × 3 supercell as its unit cell. Calorimetric analyses reveal that the new hydrate transforms to hydrohalite with a heat release of −3.47 ± 0.55 kJ mol–1. The identification of this new NaCl dihydrate on the surfaces of icy worlds such as the moons of Jupiter and Saturn could indicate regions of recent activity where subsurface brines have frozen rapidly, priority targets for upcoming planetary missions.
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Dec 2024
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DIAD-Dual Imaging and Diffraction Beamline
I12-JEEP: Joint Engineering, Environmental and Processing
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Franck P.
Vidal
,
Shaghayegh
Afshari
,
Sharif
Ahmed
,
Carolyn
Atkins
,
Eric
Béchet
,
Alberto
Corbi Bellot
,
Stefan
Bosse
,
Younes
Chahid
,
Cheng-Ying
Chou
,
Robert
Culver
,
Lewis
Dixon
,
Johan
Friemann
,
Amin
Garbout
,
Clémentine
Hatton
,
Audrey
Henry
,
Christophe
Leblanc
,
Alberto
Leonardi
,
Jean Michel
Létang
,
Harry
Lipscom
,
Tristan
Manchester
,
Bas
Meere
,
Simon
Middleburgh
,
Iwan
Mitchell
,
Liam
Perera
,
Marti
Puig Fantauzzi
,
Jenna
Tugwell-Allsup
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
[29820]
Abstract: gVirtualXray (gVXR) is an open-source framework that relies on the Beer-Lambert law to simulate x-ray images in real time on a graphics processor unit (GPU) using triangular meshes. A wide range of programming languages is supported (C/C++, Python, R, Ruby, Tcl, C#, Java, and GNU Octave). Simulations generated with gVXR have been benchmarked with clinically realistic phantoms (i.e. complex structures and materials) using Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, real radiographs and real digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs), and x-ray computed tomography (CT). It has been used in a wide range of applications, including real-time medical simulators, proposing a new densitometric radiographic modality in clinical imaging, studying noise removal techniques in fluoroscopy, teaching particle physics and x-ray imaging to undergraduate students in engineering, and XCT to masters students, predicting image quality and artifacts in material science, etc. gVXR has also been used to produce a high number of realistic simulated images in optimization problems and to train machine learning algorithms. This paper presents applications of gVXR related to XCT.
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Oct 2024
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DIAD-Dual Imaging and Diffraction Beamline
I11-High Resolution Powder Diffraction
I12-JEEP: Joint Engineering, Environmental and Processing
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Open Access
Abstract: The plumes of Enceladus contain a non-ice component that originates from aqueous processes occurring within the interior 1,2. The ocean of Enceladus is thought to be connected to the surface across a range of time scales. These processes range from the rapid eruption of cryovolcanic plumes to slow crustal convection on geological timescales3,4. In every case, the system will have a temperature and geochemical evolution as it freezes, with the history of evolution recorded in the sequence of mineral precipitation. Analogously to igneous and metamorphic petrology, we can explore the mineralogy and its context to reconstruct the history of that sample. Most importantly, for astrobiological investigations, the formation and cryo-petrological study of inorganic salts can be used to identify sites of recent exposure on the surface.
Synchrotron X-ray techniques allow fast, high-resolution probing of these systems with X-ray light. By exploring large, multi-component samples with multiple techniques, with variable temperature over time we can reveal many emergent processes that may not be predictable with simple phase diagrams.
We use a combination of synchrotron powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and X-ray microtomography (µCT) across multiple beamlines at Diamond Light Source (I11, I12 and DIAD). Using a multi-modal approach, we present an in-situ study of the low-temperature phase behaviour of Na-Cl-HCO3 fluids. We employ K11-DIAD (Dual Imaging and Diffraction) to carry out ‘image-guided diffraction’ on an Enceladus-type sample frozen in real-time. DIAD’s unique capabilities allow us not only to study microstructure down to 1 µm but also to carry out spatially resolved XRD and identify solid phases present.
We present, for the first time, the use of dual imaging and diffraction of a Na-Cl-CO₃ solution frozen in real time in 3 dimensions [Figure 1]. DIAD’s imaged guided diffraction provides spatially-resolved XRD, allowing us to probe different regions of our sample and identify the formation of Na2CO₃ hydrates. We show the influence of carbonate chemistry on the sequence of cryogenic precipitation and the development of complex microstructures. These results provide insights into crustal transport processes and will help with interpreting observational data from upcoming Galilean missions.
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Sep 2024
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