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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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: Xrf old faucet
Geo? I am no expert??in this field. Activated charcoal (AC)has more universal absorption characteristics than coffee??due to high microporosity AC can??absorb gas,liquids,radionuclides,polar
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taray singh <sukhjez@...>
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#1890
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Re: Trinitite
RE Trinity Sand: After some 34 hours have past, some more probable Eu-152 peaks starting to show (highlighted by red arrows) Normally a peak of <10 counts can be ignored. Put it off to random
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1889
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
"which brings me to burnout Randall" Not even close, Randall, once the electronics are as good as they can be (did you mention coaxial cable capacitance?), the tube itself, or rather the gas inside it
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1888
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Re: Xrf old faucet
Hi Taray, thanks for the update. Coffee for absorption media? Why not, tests cleaner/more neutral than local soil or sand I bet!! Definitely "cleaner" radioactivity-wise than say mushrooms from Moscow
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1887
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
Hi, There seem to be quite a few interrelated electrical parameters, physical properties (of the x-ray/PC chamber) and design compromises involved. I don't have it all organized into one simple view.
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Randall Buck
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#1886
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Re: Xrf old faucet
Here is a file about coffee xrf. Had difficulty sending earlier Taray
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taray singh <sukhjez@...>
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#1885
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Re: Xrf old faucet
Hi guys I am about to conclude my coffee xrf analysis? Previously scanned dirty tap water coffee ground with evidence of some heavy metals like Fe,Zn etc The following 2 test was done on? 1 coffee
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taray singh <sukhjez@...>
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#1884
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
Dear Randall, Yes. You're right about the Hamamatsu - it is for a SiPIN. I have a vague memory that I saw some articles about the A-250 being deployed on satellites and I seem to remember the
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Soren
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#1883
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
Hi Soren, The patent is interesting but the other two are for Ortec 142 A/B/C type applications, like Geo and others are using, solid state PIN and other detectors. Randall
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Randall Buck
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#1882
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Re: Trinitite
If you use Log or Sqrt mode you can also see the other Cd escape peak from the Sm Kb1at 22.19 kev as well as Am-241 at 59.4 Pretty pictures lie Dud Sent: Friday, December 11, 2020 10:48 AM To:
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Dude
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#1881
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Re: Trinitite
Gamma Spectrum scan only- no exciter-Desert sand. Excavated by ants outside the fenced area, see report by Rob Hermes etal. Small sample, having been picked through and "discarded" - just sand after
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1880
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
I found an interesting patents that eliminates the noise producing feedback resistor and also does some magic to avoid the need of a reset circuit to prevent saturation. It's pretty straightforward
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Soren
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#1879
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
Perfect A parts search,the easy way. Now to compare the op amp specs with the Ortec 142PC There may also be other, higher performance alternatives. With such a low capacitance in the Porp Chamber,
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Randall Buck
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#1878
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Re: Trinitite
Wiki definition is Plutonium is classified according to the percentage of the contaminant plutonium-240 that it contains: Supergrade 2¨C3% Weapons grade 3¨C7% Fuel grade 7¨C18% Reactor grade
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Dude
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#1877
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Re: Trinitite
Here's another reference mentioning super-grade Pu-239. Of course that's what went in to the device. The ratio of Pu isotopes left in Trinitite is another matter entirely due to neutron absorption.
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1876
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Re: Trinitite
On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 12:38 PM, Dude wrote: > > > > 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
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1875
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
Randall, Thanks. Someone alerted me to the fact that Spectrum Techniques makes a preamp designed for Proportional Counters. There is not reference to it on their website, but the product manual with
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Soren
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#1874
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Re: Getting the Wiki going
Well, a very skeletal form of the Wiki is up. I setup the home page and created a basic structure for the information. As an experiment, I wrote up a page on NIM modules. It's all very rough, but it
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Soren
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#1873
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Re: Proportional Counters and Preamps
Looks like Q11 is being used in diode mode with base emitter shorted. A transient voltage willshort the fet to ground via that diode. I am thinking OP Amp, discrete components are too much work, just
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Randall Buck
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#1872
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Re: Getting the Wiki going
Good. It's done. I had backup moderators on all the old lists. Just haven't gotten around to it on these all these new ones yet. One of the lists is an Archive of the old Yahoo Groups, one for each
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GEOelectronics@...
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#1871
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