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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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: CDY's Betafite
Thanks a lot A.Wally! Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#407
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Re: CDY's Betafite
Instead of saving the UCS20 file as a .spu file, save it as a tab delimited file.? Tab and comma separated files are options in the File/Save menu.? Those can be imported into Theremino after
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AnotherWally
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#406
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Re: CDY's Betafite
Dude, Cal was originally 59.5 (Am), 662 (Cs-137) and 1333 (Co-60)This is also a test of the MCA and the probe, neither of which have been fired up recently.Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#405
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Re: CDY's Betafite
Coll, and thanks for looking at the .spu file, too bad it can't be converted. We were really lucky the .mca files can be!Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#404
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Re: CDY's Betafite
The E cal looks to be off the higher you go in energy. What did you use for the cal? Dud Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2019 8:46 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [XRF] CDY's Betafite CDY's Betafite Gamma
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Dude
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#403
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Re: CDY's Betafite
George, The betafite is one of the less interesting gamma specs in my collection. I has all the normal U238 decay chain peaks that are well documented. Unfortunately, I can't import that file into
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Charles David Young
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#402
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CDY's Betafite
CDY's Betafite Gamma Scan on 2x2 NaI(Tl). 2X2 NaI(Tl), SpecTech UCS MCA, USX program. Are my peaks labelled correctly and is there a "universal" reference gamma scan chart with the peaks labeled as to
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GEOelectronics@...
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#401
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Re: Testing valididty of Niobium Ka peaks in radioactive rocks.
Randall, you can open the files with Amptek DPPMCA or the same ADMCA that I made them with. Both free on Amptek site or my site we linked earlier. George
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GEOelectronics@...
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#400
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Re: Testing valididty of Niobium Ka peaks in radioactive rocks.
DPPMCA from here: https://www.amptek.com/software/software-downloads/dp5-digital-pulse-processor-software
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Charles David Young
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#399
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Re: Testing valididty of Niobium Ka peaks in radioactive rocks.
Just off hand, judging from No. 2 it looks like your "Columbite" does not auto fluoresce Ni. That is, the 16.61 photopeak is missing. However,the photopeak from the pure Nb at approx 16.4 does
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Randall Buck
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#398
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Re: Testing valididty of Niobium Ka peaks in radioactive rocks.
That's a beautiful rendition Charles, I love it. Maybe some day I can do that conversion too. Charles, it's not so much does it have Nb, it's can we use the natural radiation to prove it has Nb.....
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GEOelectronics@...
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#397
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Re: Testing valididty of Niobium Ka peaks in radioactive rocks.
Looks to me you haven¡¯t counted long enough to say anything. This peak isn¡¯t even 25 counts. Dud Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2019 5:41 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [XRF] Testing valididty of
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Dude
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#396
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Re: Testing valididty of Niobium Ka peaks in radioactive rocks.
It looks to me like your CdTe has enough resolution to say for sure that this does not have Nb. Charles
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Charles David Young
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#395
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Testing valididty of Niobium Ka peaks in radioactive rocks.
Equipment used- Amptek CdTe low energy X-Ray sensor with Amptek PX4 power supply/ MCA unit. The sensor/preamplifier head plus sample are inside a Pb-Cd-Cu graded shield with a total of 1" thickness.
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GEOelectronics@...
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#394
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Re: Bi Ka1/Ka2 bifurcation
Why rush? This is a hobby and learn as we go..... I have more projects than I will ever get to by the time I push up daisies. In retirement, slow is quite appropriate, at least for me. Dave - W?LEV
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W0LEV
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#393
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Re: Bi Ka1/Ka2 bifurcation
Nothing new, the second CdTe is the newestr AXR series is all. In a XR-100T head with preamp. It's been on the shelf waiting since maybe 2017, and has it's own power supply/controller, an analog PX2
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GEOelectronics@...
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#392
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Re: Bi Ka1/Ka2 bifurcation
Charles, did your friend Dr. Stefano work at CERN? Wondering if he would want to join our little group here?Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#391
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Re: Bi Ka1/Ka2 bifurcation
¡°¡I would have had to do this anyway when the brand new sensor head on the shelf comes into service.¡±¡ What new sensor on the shelf? whatta ya got now? Dud Sent: Thursday, December 26, 2019
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Dude
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#390
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Re: Looking at Radium-226 from a rare perspective.
On Wed, Dec 25, 2019 at 01:18 PM, Dude wrote: Thanks for the tutorial Dude, it worked just as you explained. On the Si-PIN and earlier SDD outfit, they were new and had factory calibration, so far
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GEOelectronics@...
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#389
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Re: Bi Ka1/Ka2 bifurcation
Very good Charles. I have learned new things too thanks to Dudley. The "Ll" line is not in my X-Ray Data book or XRF charts at all, but the internet served it up, although you would probably never
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GEOelectronics@...
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#388
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