Modern Macromolecular crystallography (MX) relies on a foundation of trusted, highly optimized software to translate raw diffraction images into meaningful structural biology insights. For decades, XDS - the software program developed by Wolfgang Kabsch - has served as a critical component in this workflow. Max Planck Innovation and Wolfgang Kabsch have chosen to entrust DECTRIS with the long-term stewardship, distribution, and support of XDS through an exclusive licensing agreement.
Through this transition, DECTRIS ensures that (a) XDS remains freely available to academic researchers without any version-bound time restrictions, (b) establishes a transparent and stable licensing framework for commercial users, and (c) introduces a rigorous reproducibility framework to track algorithmic consistency across future hardware generations.
On May 19, 2026, we traveled to China to meet our OEM partner IDONANO, a pioneer in China's domestic high-end XRD market. During this visit, we held a workshop giving detailed insights into the features, advantages, and benefits of POLLUX detectors. Following the workshop, we commissioned a prototype and performed the first successful tests of the new POLLUX detector on IDONANO’s laboratory XRD systems. POLLUX is an important milestone in our partnership and will unlock unprecedented performance on IDONANO’s instruments to address emerging challenges in materials science, semiconductor metrology, and nanotechnology.
HIMEJI, JAPAN | April 2026 – DECTRIS Japan K.K., a subsidiary of the global leader in Hybrid Photon Counting (HPC) detector technology, DECTRIS Ltd., today announces a change in its executive leadership. Dr. Takeyoshi Taguchi has stepped down as Representative Director, with Dr. Leonard Chavas appointed as his successor to lead the company into its next phase of growth.
This white paper explores how DECTRIS’s Hybrid Photon Counting detectors enhance SAXS and WAXS experiments, enabling high-resolution, low-noise data collection in both synchrotron and laboratory environments.
Researchers have developed a new electron diffraction refinement method (iSFAC) that directly determines partial atomic charges in molecules.
This breakthrough enables experimentally derived charge mapping—enhancing insights into chemical reactivity, materials properties, and biological function.
Read the success story from the group of Tim Grüne and our SINGLA detector here.
DECTRIS and Excillum have published a joint article demonstrating how combining high-brightness MetalJet X-ray sources with fast, sensitive photon-counting detectors enables rapid, high-quality 3D CT imaging for battery inspection. The study highlights significant image-quality improvements, faster defect detection, and synchrotron-like performance in laboratory and production settings, underlining the partners’ commitment to advancing next-generation X-ray technology.
We are proud to share that our article—“Enhancing high‑energy powder X‑ray diffraction applications using a PILATUS4 CdTe detector” (Donath et al. J. Synchr. Rad. 2025, 32, 378) has been published.
This study was conducted in collaboration with scientists at the MAX IV Laboratory (Sweden) and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF, France). Using the new PILATUS4 CdTe detector, we pushed the limits of resolution, speed, and performance in high-energy PXRD.
After three successful commissioning experiments at EMBL, ALS, and MAX IV, a white paper outlines how DECTRIS CLOUD can be integrated into synchrotron facility beamlines.
Meet our new Application Scientist Hans Gildenast! Hans is an experienced DECTRIS detector user and passionate crystallographer who will be working with researchers, understanding their projects, and helping them achieve their scientific goals with DECTRIS detectors.
We’re proud to unveil POLLUX™, the latest addition to our family of laboratory X-ray detectors - and our most versatile one yet. Built on decades of expertise in Hybrid Photon Counting (HPC) technology, POLLUX was specifically developed for laboratory XRD, empowering scientists and instrument developers with fast, accurate, and energy-discriminating X-ray detection.
