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.
?
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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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
?
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
?
Resources
Videos
Articles
?
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
?
Re: Trinitite
*It's on the way, any corrections, new ideas, comments welcomed.* *Geo* > > >
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1371
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Steve's piece is the "Lump" and is identified as such on the .mca 's I own the Blob and the triangle as shown stacked in the pictures. They are solid iron (mild steel) all the way through. There is no
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1370
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Geo, Please send the MCA files, pictures are pretty but you can¡¯t interpret anything from them other than there¡¯s no Fe at the cursor in this case. Is this the Fe Blob, Steve¡¯s piece we¡¯re
By
Dude
·
#1369
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Iron Self XRF in Trinitite follow-up- as expected ordinary Trinitite from the ground shows little to no self excited iron XRF:
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1368
·
|
Re: Trinitite
*OK. The blob is solid, actually 1930's grade "mild steel". It's the top piece in this photo:* *When excited by a tube and XRF is measured, you see iron: * *When it is Gamma Scanned with a low energy
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1367
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Pb and Fe alright. So what does the blob trinitite show when it¡¯s just self excited? Why do some show Fe and others don¡¯t? Dud Sent: Sunday, October 11, 2020 3:24 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re:
By
Dude
·
#1366
·
|
Re: Trinitite
and a workup from that old .mca The stuff between the Ag peaks is mostly junk from the Am exciter. Geo
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1365
·
|
Re: Trinitite
a better scan, full 3600 seconds this one:
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1364
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Here you go Dud, 2014, pure metal (99.999%) Silver. SDD Detector, 8XAL @ 22.5 degrees
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1363
·
|
Re: Trinitite
OK I understand. Yes there are things that show up from the exciter for sure.... Np X-Rays, 59.5, gold or Palladium for one, then the stainless steel components as well as the shielding, but they are
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1362
·
|
Re: Trinitite
No just the Am source into a pure metal that is free of Fe to see if the Fe peak is due to the am source. Then try the same with no sample just the source It needs to be done with the same source that
By
Dude
·
#1361
·
|
Re: Trinitite
"Has anyone ever run a background count into a pure metal or silica glass to see what the Am / Fe source contribution is or isn¡¯t?." Dud do you mean a basic no source, shielded background test of a
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1360
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Pa-234m? X-Ray Emissions Intensity ? ? Energy? ? Assignment (%)? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? (keV) 0.2500 ? ? ? ? ? ? 13.618? ? ? ?U La1 0.2300 ? ? 98.434? ? ? ?U Ka1 0.2000 ? ?
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1359
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Has anyone ever run a background count into a pure metal or silica glass to see what the Am / Fe source contribution is or isn¡¯t?. Has anyone run a full energy gamma spec on the piece? What kind of
By
Dude
·
#1358
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Ingrowth of U-238 progeny over 75 years. We mentioned in an earlier post that they second source of the same exact Uranium L-X-Rays in Trinitite is the creation of?U-234 by the U-238 decay chain.
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1357
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Looks good Mike. Excellent work and Charles' software is beautiful If you can check the peak height count # of that 17.xxx X-Ray from the Trinitite, then do a run with same calibration on Am only, run
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1356
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Slightly better. Mike L.
By
Mike L.
·
#1355
·
|
Re: Trinitite
I think all the lines are associated with nuclide decay.? No direct florescence.? I think. Mike L.
By
Mike L.
·
#1353
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Good, will watch for that Charles. Thanks Geo
By
GEOelectronics@...
·
#1352
·
|
Re: Trinitite
Mike Loughlin has already done this, albeit not with the exact same specimen. It is a specimen that we "collected" at the same time. I am sure he will post his results soon. Charles
By
Charles David Young
·
#1351
·
|