The SAXSess lab system from Anton Paar (Graz, Austria) comprises an X-ray generator (PANalytical, PW 3830) with a sealed copper tube. A Göbel mirror and a Kratky block collimation system are used to convert the divergent polychromatic X-ray beam into a focused line shaped beam of Cu-Ka radiation (wavelength 0.1542nm). The sample is filled into a temperature controlled quartz capillary or a sample holder for solid samples. The cell is placed along the line shaped X-ray beam in the evacuated camera housing. The 2D scattering pattern is recorded either by a CCD camera or an imaging plate reader.

The CCD camera from Princeton Instruments (Trenton, NJ, USA) contains a chip with a 2084 x 2084 array of pixels of a size of 24 x 24 µm (chip size: 50 x 50 mm). The CCD is operated at –40°C with 14°C water-assisted cooling to reduce thermally generated charge. The pixel size of 24µm corresponds to a resolution in the scattering vector of 0.0031nm^-1. The overall q-regime which can be detected is from about 0.04 to 6nm^-1.

The imaging plate detector (Packard Cyclone Storage Phosphor Screen with OptiQuant software) can detect scattering vectors up to about 28nm^-1.