XRF Wiki
Welcome to the XRF Wiki. This Wiki is a repository of information contributed by members of [email protected]. Members can view and edit the pages. The pages are currently not viewable by the public. The pages below represent a rough overview of the technology and techniques associated with X-Ray Florescence Spectroscopy as well as serving as a place for members to organize the spectra that they have contributed to the forum.?
As a starting point, the pages will be populated by information taken from member posts from the past few years - with references/attribution. Perhaps in time, these pages can be edited by members to make them more complete and less choppy. Members can also edit this page, making the structure of the content more organized.?
Pages can contain information about a particular topic, links to relevant resources (such as manuals, research papers, etc.), links to relevant forum discussions on the topic, book titles, or anything that might be useful.
What follows is very much a work in progress.
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Adding to the Wiki
For those unfamiliar with the Wiki phenomenon, it is basically a user editable encyclopedia. The idea is that there are pages with different articles, which the user can read and also choose to edit if desired. If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake. There is also a "Page History," so if you a user were to make a mistake or maliciously destroy a page (which wouldn't happen here) an editor can come along and restore the page to a previous version.?
If you have used MediaWiki (the engine that runs behind the scene of Wikipedia.org) you will be familiar with a certain style of creating an article. There are tags that one uses to change the formatting of the parts of the article. The Wiki on Groups.io uses a different background engine and so the standard MediaWiki syntax does not apply here. Rather, the page is edited using the same tools as one would use to compose a message on the forums. If you are a programmer or someone who likes using the tagged syntax directly, you can access the underlying page source code, be activating the advanced editing toolbar (the icon with three lines on the far right of the basic toolbar) and then clicking on the source code icon <> on the far right of the Advance Editing Toolbar. You will immediately notice that the underlying source code is HTML. Most things can be done just by using the various icons, but advanced features like table can only be implemented by manually writing the source code. (Although there are website available that will generate the source code for you through a graphical interface.)
Here are some useful resources from Groups.io:?
Wiki Guide for Users and Editors
Message Composition Tips and Tricks
Overview of XRF
X-Ray Florescence vs. X-Ray Diffraction
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Hardware
This section describes the hardware used for XRF. We will describe the basic theory of operation of each stage in the processing tool chain and then present different commercial systems that are available as these systems are often integrated together.
[Editor note: General theory needs to be in an independent page separate from specific manufacturer information.
[Editor note - question: Should this be arranged by category, e.g detectors, preamps, etc or by manufacturer with the manufacturers product line on one page. Perhaps it's best to put a list of products with theory but the details of the products on a manufacture page...]
Detectors?- what's available, theory of operation, tradeoffs
Detector Cooling?- keeping detectors cool to avoid thermal noise and keeping the TEC from overheating
Preamps?- theory of operation, brief summary of what out there (and what not to do - such as trying to use a PMT preamp for a SiPIN diode...)
Pulse Processing Theory - high level overview of the stages of going from detector pulse to channel peaks on the computer
Commercial Systems - many commercial systems are integrated so it seems to make sense to present, for example all Amptek products together. [question: are their other affordable integrated systems besides Amptek?]
Amptek XRF System
Activation Sources - what do you use to make the sample fluoresce (that's within the amateur budget and doesn't require special licensing)
Software
- Device Control Software - what do you use to collect the data from the detector system
- XRF Analysis Software - what do you use to analyze the data, especially for quantitative measurements (composition percentages, thin film measurement)
- Free Software Tools
Note: there may be software packages that possess some or all of these characteristics.
Materials Spectra
Metals Spectra
Historic/Archeological Spectra
Reference Materials Spectra
Household Objects Spectra
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Resources
Videos
Articles
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Non-XRF Techniques
Gamma Spectroscopy
Raman Spectroscopy
FTIR - Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy
Atomic Emission Spectroscopy
Inductively Coupled Atomic Emission Spectroscopy
Spark Emission Spectroscopy
Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy
LIBS - Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy
Photoacoustic Spectroscopy
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Re: Trinitite
"NOTE-electrons in all the elements occupy discreet energy bands. No two energy bands (electron shells) from different elements are the same.
Geo"
Does that sound more corrector or should I give up
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1204
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Re: Trinitite
What you said is what I was trying to say I think. If we detect an X-Ray we can tell what shell it came from and what shell it was that filled it.
"Of course, every electron, per se, is exactly
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1203
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Re: Trinitite
Hi Geo,
Not too sure what you meant to say here: (clip)
>>
NOTE- every electron in all the elements together occupy an individual and discreet energy band. No two electrons from the same or
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Randall Buck
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#1201
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Re: Trinitite
Americium? vs. Plutonium via? Neptunium vs. Uranium Daughter XRF.
Part 2.1
Gathering baseline scans of? Uranium XRF.
* Equipment used:
* Amptek GEO-1-2-3 with integral DPP/PC5 electronics and
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#1200
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Re: Trinitite
*Americium? vs. Plutonium via? Neptunium vs. Uranium Daughter XRF*.
Part 2
Gathering baseline scans of Neptunium XRF.
* Equipment used:
* Amptek GEO-1-2-3 with integral DPP/PC5 electronics and
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#1199
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Re: Trinitite
*Americium? vs. Plutonium via? Neptunium vs. Uranium Daughter XRF*.
Part 1: PREFACE
We always see Gamma Rays and X-Rays listed in the decay chain of radioactive atoms. Also Alpha radiation and
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1198
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Edited
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Re: Trinitite
Members:
If you are XRF-ing Trinitite, please look for Strontium, Barium and Cesium elements. It will help add to our knowledge base.
Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1197
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Re: Trinitite
Here's a link to the thread "Testing Trinitite":
The messages are numbered within:
[ /g/XRF/topic/trinitite/71091046?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,71091046 |
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1196
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Re: Trinitite
What is post #814? Can you post a picture?
Dud
Sent: Sunday, September 13, 2020 5:36 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [XRF] Trinitite
Geo,
The plutonium teardrop is wonderful...beautiful
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Dude
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#1195
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Re: Trinitite
Good summary Geo. Technically Trinitite is the surface soils flash melted in-situ by the fireball prompt gamma and x-rays. The beads and dumb bells are fallout which has both a volatile and refractory
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Dude
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#1194
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Re: Trinitite
OK I'm with you now TM. No those are solid metal (mild steel), probably from the bomb casing and/or the tower. I know of 3 such samples only and have tested all 3 for fission product inclusion. Only
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1192
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Re: Trinitite
Geo,
The plutonium teardrop is wonderful...beautiful indeed.
My question was for the examples in Feb 18th post #814 - they do not resemble any of the typical Trinitite examples I have seen, where
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SCOTT CAMPBELL
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#1191
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Re: Trinitite
TM,Tektites are formed in freefall (in the atmosphere) and cool to solid before hitting the ground. Notice the clear glass like appearance and inclusions both inside and on the surface. The dots are
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1190
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Re: Trinitite
Geo,
I have to ask, I have never seen Trinitite look like the samples with the painted dots, maybe because of the magnification but again I have not seen any without broken edges that show the typical
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SCOTT CAMPBELL
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#1189
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Edited
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Re: Trinitite
TM,
I can run a quantitative XRF analysis on your specimen and have a background in nuclear forensics having worked on post-det debris analysis at the Nevada Test Site. Red Trinitite is pretty
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Dude
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#1188
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Re: Trinitite
Hi TM,
I would be happy to do a detailed XRF of your specimen. I can provide you
with sample scans to show you what I can do. Attached is a trinitite scan
that I recently did.
Note that with my
By
Charles David Young
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#1186
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Re: Trinitite
Yes I would be happy to do the analysis.
George Dowell56791 Rivere Au Sel PlNew London MO 63459
I'll also forward you copies of my Trinitite analysis of samples taken from ant hill mounds at Ground
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1185
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Re: Trinitite
Hello forum,
I enjoyed reading your posts on the Red Trinitite...
Briefly,
I am a avid collector of Trinitite, Atomic material from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I? have many specimens from H. Baldwin
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SCOTT CAMPBELL
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#1184
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Re: Impulse offer accepted...
Okay, seller refunded purchase cost right away! No word on returning
broken item yet, will see. But at most I'm disappointed to not get a
working tube, but not out any money. If they don't want it
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Nick Andrews
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#1183
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Re: Impulse offer accepted...
Yes the glass is very dark as you can see. My guess is the spring goes
between the end of the copper anode(?) and the brass contact patch in the
HV end of the housing to conduct the hv. That's how
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Nick Andrews
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#1182
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