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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
"Ra Ll line" Which line is it? L what?Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#367
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
The ¡°Pb xray¡±at 10.55 keV is actually the Ra Ll line. You now see all of them Dud Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2019 12:17 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [XRF] Looking at Radium-226 from a rare
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Dude
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#366
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
Here's a scan and picture of the plot with the enhanced shielding. Pretty clean.everything that stands out looks like it belongs except - looks like some 10.55keV La? X-Ray from Pb crept in there
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GEOelectronics@...
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#365
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
Thanks Charles, cool.After getting rid of the unwanted phantom peak, now I'm making a loooong count for reference. set for 5 Hrs.Looks really clean now at 10k Seconds in
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GEOelectronics@...
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#364
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
Yes all data is there. The Beta disc is Tc-99 (not Tc-99m!)One of the 1" is 12,000 DPM, the other is 15000 DPM (1987). Referred to by S/N and DPM in the .mca and pic filenames. Got rid of the 59.5- it
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GEOelectronics@...
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#363
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
Here is my plot of both sets of data. Charles
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Charles David Young
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#362
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
Geo, I can¡¯t make out the fuzzy photo of the disks. Are these Th 230 disks calibrated SS plated with the dpm value on the label? What activity. Are they plated over the entire surface or just a
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Dude
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#361
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
Turns out the 1" Th-230 (a.k.a. ionium) discs are much more efficient than the 2" disc on both the Amptek detectors. Makes sense, they are nearly perfectly matched in size, with all the contents
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GEOelectronics@...
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#360
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
Ok, this makes sense now. I had actually guessed RaLg1 but I thought "This can't be right". Charles
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Charles David Young
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#359
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Re: Mineral identification in rocks that are also radioactive using various radiometric techniques.
The upper peaks did not want to line up well. I think that is because calibration was only done up to 59.5. Charles
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Charles David Young
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#358
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
I'm getting loopy, and will correct that after a nap.Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#357
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
It¡¯s a Th-230 disk decaying to Ra-226. You¡¯re seeing the Ra x-ray La . Lb, and Lg1. I don¡¯t see the K¡¯s he was mentioning. Dud Sent: Monday, December 23, 2019 6:15 PM To: [email protected]
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Dude
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#356
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Re: Mineral identification in rocks that are also radioactive using various radiometric techniques.
Charles can you do a comparison out to past the 185 cutoff. The 185 cut off is what one would expect for a uranium only composition. The tails would indicate some self shielding. Looks good for a
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Dude
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#355
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Re: Mineral identification in rocks that are also radioactive using various radiometric techniques.
Geo, The 1 hr count is very noisy. Go at least 2 hrs and maybe more. Dud Sent: Monday, December 23, 2019 9:13 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [XRF] Mineral identification in rocks that are also
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Dude
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#354
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
Not sure what we are looking at here. Charles
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Charles David Young
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#353
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Re: Mineral identification in rocks that are also radioactive using various radiometric techniques.
colored yellow.Convoy S2+ LED with one optional filter.Also have the mineral light transilluminator here in the room with long/short tube type illuminator and a dark box/viewing filter. Downstairs is
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GEOelectronics@...
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#352
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Re: Mineral identification in rocks that are also radioactive using various radiometric techniques.
Since you keep bringing up log vs linear, please note that all my plots are log. I agree that they are pretty. Charles
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Charles David Young
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#351
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Re: Mineral identification in rocks that are also radioactive using various radiometric techniques.
Did you note the color? And were you using long or short wave? My lamp is a custom broadband intense spotlight. I have to shield my eyes and look at the specimen on the computer monitor. Charles.
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Charles David Young
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#350
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Re: Mineral identification in rocks that are also radioactive using various radiometric techniques.
W is not the normal substitution but does occur often enough. It is also a path finder element for the Coltan type materials. Note the common W La,b shoulder associated with the Ta La,b in the
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Dude
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#349
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Re: Mineral identification in rocks that are also radioactive using various radiometric techniques.
Yes I did look under filtered UV briefly through the opened lid. Not impressed with its fluorescence. Nothing like Autunite or Willamite for example. Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#348
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