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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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: Welcome new member Justin.
Likely not much use to me, but can't bear to toss some stuff...
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Nick Andrews
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#1789
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Re: Welcome new member Justin.
Here's some of what followed me home.
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Nick Andrews
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#1788
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Re: Welcome new member Justin.
But did the glue stop working after the experts told her about it?
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Nick Andrews
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#1787
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Re: Welcome new member Justin.
I'd imagine the magic in that Newton device is the 'miniature' part of it. On modern vacuum tube manufacture, look up Dalibor Farney. He makes new nixie tubes!
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Nick Andrews
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#1786
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Re: Amptek SiPIN vs FastSDD - Recommendations?
Soren, I would agree with Charles on the SiPin detector on the basis of cost vs resolution. The Si-Pins that we see on ebay are 25mm^2 which is the lowest resolution version of these detectors. An SDD
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Dude
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#1785
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Re: Amptek SiPIN vs FastSDD - Recommendations?
Charles I just reread you comments - I guess question 3 isn't as relevant... Also, I see a lot of typos in my response. I really do know how to spell. It seems that some of my keyboard key are not
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Soren
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#1784
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Re: Amptek SiPIN vs FastSDD - Recommendations?
Charles, Thank. At this point I don't have many specific applications. I collect elements and minerals and it was be nice to analyze them for purity. I also have some artistic/archeological materials
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Soren
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#1783
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Re: Welcome new member Justin.
I bought a venerable old Tektronix 2645b for the same reason - last reparable oscilloscope. This microscope is an old Zeiss (West Germany) with some snazzy add-ons like the Epi-Illumination
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Soren
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#1782
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Re: Welcome new member Justin.
Greetings to the group, I wanted to weigh in on this thread about machine shops, lathes, etc. As a farm kid who grew up around shop equipment and exposed PTO (power take off) shafts on tractors, I
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Ken Sejkora
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#1781
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Re: Welcome new member Justin.
Almost all my microscopes are like that- fixable. Reichert MEF's and a Zetopan. Geo To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, December 3, 2020 1:43:33 PM Subject: Re: [XRF] Welcome new member Justin. Dear
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1780
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Re: Welcome new member Justin.
Dear Geo, Thanks. I'm a wannabe wannabe machinist. Right now, a wannabe welder - next year a wannabe machinist. Nice to hear that people are into HAM radio. Being a young person, I come from the SDR
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Soren
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#1779
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Re: Welcome new member Justin.
" and many are wannabe machinists." Long ago the inventor of "Thongs" the shoe not the underwear- was being interviewed. She said that she invented a way to glue layers of a certain plastic together
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1778
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Re: Welcome new member Justin.
Yikes, Logans are classic, lathes too-sweet but dangerous. Geo To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, December 3, 2020 12:37:25 PM Subject: Re: [XRF] Welcome new member Justin. Yes, welcome! And to add on
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1777
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Re: Amptek SiPIN vs FastSDD - Recommendations?
I agree with Charles. The FAST-SDD has a few advantages that could come in handy later on. "Fast" means it can gather a tremendous # of counts in a burst. This would be handy if you were looking above
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1776
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Re: Welcome new member Justin.
Yes, welcome! And to add on Geo's statement, many of us are into all sorts of related topics, like vacuum tube tech, high voltage, high energy physics/chemistry, and many are wannabe machinists. I
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Nick Andrews
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#1775
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Re: Amptek SiPIN vs FastSDD - Recommendations?
Hi Soren, I'll just relate my experience with the Amptek SiPIN that I have been using for a year or so. It is great for helping me identify minerals. Even if I had the budget for an SDD I doubt I
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Charles David Young
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#1774
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Welcome new member Justin.
Hi Justin and welcome to our small but intense group of XRF'ers. Also noticed you joined GammaSpectrometryGroup. We try to keep XRF Group centered on advanced XRF topics (SDD, SI-PIN, CdTe, CZT
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1773
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Amptek SiPIN vs FastSDD - Recommendations?
I'm a bit new to the world of XRF and am currently using an old scintillator probe and some NIM modules - but the resolution isn't great. I've been looking at some Amptek setups on eBay and have been
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Soren
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#1772
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Re: Trinitite
Red Trinitite sample, first found (by me) iron sphere tektite. 4 to 5mm diameter, Quite magnetic. Looks like a challenging XRF target! Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1771
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Re: Non Red Parking Lot "Calcite
Hi Geo, Here¡¯s a link to a site that describes the standard scratch test for minerals: https://geology.com/minerals/mohs-hardness-scale.shtml Have fun! -- Ken Sent: Monday, November 30, 2020 11:30
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Ken Sejkora
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#1770
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