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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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
Wow , that was worth looking at, I never would have expected that. Good scientific procedures. Now the question of where its coming from. Start with the chamber i.e get rid of it. we shouldn¡¯t need
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Dude
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#1870
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Re: Getting the Wiki going
Thanks. If you want you could do this - make me a group monitor and I'll get it going. Then I'll see what kind of access permissions I need in order to maintain it and you can downgrade me to that
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Soren
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#1869
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Re: Getting the Wiki going
Yes please do, if it requires being a group moderator, let me know I can make you moderator no problem. Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1868
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Re: Getting the Wiki going
Great on the Si-PIN Soren!If I can be of any help let me know......I can't help with wiki, and have no idea what it is. My biggest issue is my web host ( a Ham Radio group) made me take down all my
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1867
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Re: Trinitite
Thanks I'll read and digest this message shortly. Right now let me jump back to this one and correct myself: " Geo, In order to compare and try to quantify these samples they both need to have been
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1866
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
Thanks so much. Yes, as you probably noticed above, there is a link to the 142PC schematic. What's missing is the illusive identity of the Q1 FET and the Q11 BJT. What they actually are probably
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Soren
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#1865
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
Thanks for the info Geo. Also, Here is a block diagram for the Ortec 142PC. https://www.ortec-online.com/-/media/ametekortec/manuals/142pc-mnl.pdf That is a pretty good starting point. Next step is to
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Randall Buck
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#1864
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Re: Trinitite
Geo, The amount of Pu-240 in that era of devices was about 2.5% with Pu-241 of about 0.05%. If you look at the Green Top CdTe 86Ksec mca again the Pu 240 appears at 45.24 next to the Pu 239 at 51.62
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Dude
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#1863
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
Oops, It looks like it is actually the Ortec 142PC that is optimized for proportional counters. https://www.ortec-online.com/products/electronics/preamplifiers/142pc Same issue re a circuit diagram.
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Randall Buck
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#1862
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
See attached paper, preamp schematic coming via private eMail/ Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1861
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
I know that proportional counters are/were used ad detectors for low energy XRF in the wavelength dispersive mode (i.e., using a crystal surface like an optical diffraction grating. Nice. Plain Ar
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Randall Buck
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#1860
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Re: Discussion of Raman Spectroscopy moved to GeorgeDowell-XRF-NDT-LAB group
Thanks Soren, I myself am looking forward to that- it is new technology, and holds a great deal of interest for meGeo.
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1859
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Discussion of Raman Spectroscopy moved to GeorgeDowell-XRF-NDT-LAB group
Since a discussion got started here on Raman and there might be some interest, I started a thread over at?GeorgeDowell-XRF-NDT-LAB for anyone who cares to join in. That way it won't clutter up the
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Soren
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#1858
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Proportional Counters and Preamps
A while back I bought a small proportional counter on the cheap from eBay but I've never got it going for lack of a preamp. It seems like it will will work down in the low energy range and might be
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Soren
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#1857
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Re: Trinitite
"Rope Trick Effect" explained. Energy jets are directed into a beam by cables strung from the Trinity tower. These precede the actual fireball. There were at least two major aerial runs of power and
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1856
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Re: Getting the Wiki going
There seems to be some information on the wiki here: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki/14936 If GEO thinks its a good idea, perhaps he could enable it.
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Soren
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#1855
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Getting the Wiki going
I noticed that there are a a number of resources in the files section, but the Wiki is empty. There is so much good information in these threads and I'm just starting to comb though it as I get
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Soren
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#1854
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Re: Trinitite
" Geo, In order to compare and try to quantify these samples they both need to have been run for the same live time (The Red has 25% more run time), HV, and current. Both would need to interrogate the
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1853
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Re: Trinitite
Geo, In order to compare and try to quantify these samples they both need to have been run for the same live time (The Red has 25% more run time), HV, and current. Both would need to interrogate the
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Dude
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#1852
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Re: Trinitite
Red vs Green Trinitite via XRF I was expecting a larger difference in content based upon the vastly different look and phase of metal inclusions and color. Except for distribution %, it seems both are
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1851
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