The compact Kratky camera produces a slit-collimated beam by use of the U-block design, invented by Otto Kratky of the University of Graz in the 1950s (and redesigned into the compact form in the 1970s). Our Kratky camera (Anton-Paar, Graz, Austria) employs CuKα x-rays, from the line port of a sealed tube (PANalytical PW2773/20, powered by a PW3830 generator). The camera can acquire SAXS data down to very low scattering angles (Bragg spacings greater than 100 nm), but the data must be numerically desmeared to yield the true scattering pattern. The camera is connected to a one-dimensional position-sensitive detector (Braun OED-50M or Hecus PSD 5DM). Monochromatization is achieved by pulse-height analysis and the detector and by nickel foil filtering upstream of the Kratky U-block. Count rates up to 104 per second can be easily achieved with typical generator settings and strongly-scattering samples, permitting time-resolved measurements with time slices as short as five minutes. We have designed a hot stage which can maintain temperature uniformity within 1°C over the length of the illuminated sample volume; this hot stage is microprocessor-controlled (Fuji PYZ).
