WDS is definitely on topic Steve, We welcome any and all threads concerning the practice.
One of the things I do is service the Tel-X-Ometer unit, it is a sort of college level WDS and all around X-Ray demonstration unit. Not a microanalysis unit obviously. Lots of stuff we use in XRF is same as is used in SEM. The idea of using beta particle emitters to excite XRF came directly from the electron beam scanning microscope in material analysis mode. I usually use Kr-85 for that. It's a way we can excite things above the range of microfocus X-Ray tubes, and Am-241. Pb Ka, Kb is a breeze.
Lots of info and even the full lab manual(experiments and demonstrations)? is in my 2020MANUALS section.
I personally own several fully functional units, and several others, 8 in all at last count. Always promised myself to learn to use them for WDS, but it just hasn't come up yet....
Say Steve do you have the specifications or could get them for the fire tower used for Trinity? I'm particularly interested in the steel thickness and alloy used for the angle iron.
Geo?
----- Original Message -----
From: WILLIAM S Dubyk <sdubyk@...>
To:
[email protected]Sent: Thu, 13 Feb 2020 23:11:14 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [XRF] Wavelenght Dispersive Microanalysis
I was talking to Mike Spilde at UNM about mineral analyses for some of the low Z elements like Be, since you can't do that with xrf. He gave me some information about how he does it with this WDS method. I thought it was pretty "Wow" so you may be interested in this, this has a real good explanation of how you can analyze these elements with a SEM. The d-spacings of the crystals he uses are 120, 90 and 60 angstroms to capture Be to F. I also thought it was pretty neat that proportional detectors are used for the analyses. Kind of off topic and a little out of this league but you gotta admit it's pretty cool.
Steve?
