A NEUTRON DIFFRACTOMETER FOR BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES USING NEUTRON IMAGING PLATES

Neutron imaging plates (NIPs), developed recently, have a good spatial resolution and availability of a large sensitive area. The NIPs havin g such characteristics may be particularly useful for neutron-diffract ion measurements of biological macromolecules. We have constructed a n eutron diffractometer dedicated to crystallography of biological macro -molecules using the NIP, in the guide hall of the reactor JRR-3M at J apan Atomic Energy Research Institute. Neutrons are monochromatized wi th an elastically-bent-silicon monochromator (lambda = 0.22 nm). The d iffraction patterns are detected with the NIP of 400 x 520 mm(2) at a distance of 150-300 mm from a sample crystal. A sequence of the measur ements (exposure, reading the NIP, erasure of the pattern, and startin g the next exposure) is done automatically. We measured the diffractio n patterns from hen egg-white lysozyme crystals, and obtained the patt erns which can be processed to derive integrated intensity of each dif fraction spot. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.