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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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: cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF
This is a cyrtolite from Branchville Quarry, CT. It has less of Fe, Hf, Th, and Y than the previous cyrtolites. It has more U. This is consistent with my gamma spec that I previously attached showing
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Charles David Young
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#569
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF
Here is the addition of the Burnet County, TX cyrtolite: https://www.mindat.org/photo-960152.html Charles charlesdavidyoung@...> wrote:
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Charles David Young
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#568
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF
Attached are the scans of both cyrtolites from South Platte. The latest also has the id of thorite. https://www.mindat.org/photo-962592.html https://www.mindat.org/photo-984187.html So is it fair to
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Charles David Young
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#567
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF
Thanks, Steve! Hm, what is impressive? I have some 99% zirconium. Is that what you mean by a standard? Charles
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Charles David Young
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#566
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF
Charles, you should have it QA'ed by someone else, but wow, that is impressive. Do you have a zirconium standard? I've got a zirconium disc if you need one. Steve ________________________________
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#565
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF
Ok, here are the final files. I'll start the other South Platte cyrtolite now. Charles
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Charles David Young
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#564
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF
Lookin¡¯ good Dud Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2020 3:49 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [XRF] cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF I am still running this scan but the element list is now: Fe Hf Y Zr I have
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Dude
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#563
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF
I am still running this scan but the element list is now: Fe Hf Y Zr I have also included an intermediate .mca file. BTW my gamma scans show this is a combination of U238 and Th232 decay chains. I
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Charles David Young
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#562
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF
And this is the rock. https://www.mindat.org/photo-962592.html charlesdavidyoung@...> wrote:
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Charles David Young
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#561
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cyrtolite Little Patsy XRF
It is still early but here are some of the strongest peaks: Fe Y Zr I'll send the .mca later when I have some decent counts. Charles
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Charles David Young
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#560
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Re: White Signal bassetite
Well, we know that the Au is coming from Am241 source.
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Charles David Young
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#559
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Re: White Signal bassetite
Charles, This is pretty messy and really provides not a lot of information due to interferences and low count. I would suggest you get a piece of known composition steel (SS 316 would be niece) or
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Dude
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#558
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Re: XRF - comparing Dud's with my Si-PIN
Steve, do you have the xrf data of this from Virgil? Dud Sent: Monday, January 20, 2020 9:35 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [XRF] XRF - comparing Dud's with my Si-PIN Charles, take a look at this.
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Dude
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#557
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Re: XRF - comparing Dud's with my Si-PIN
Steve, I'll XRF cyrtolites next. You know what I have so you want me to start with South Platte? Meanwhile, what do you think about the White Signal XRF? Is that what you expect bassetite to look
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Charles David Young
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#556
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Re: XRF - comparing Dud's with my Si-PIN
Charles, take a look at this. This was identified by xrf by Virgil Leuth at NM Tech; you could not have guessed this is zircon. Mel took this in because it was very odd looking. So xrf looks like a
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#555
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Re: XRF - comparing Dud's with my Si-PIN
If you can see the Zr with the Am buttons, you can always see the Th with gamma spec. That would help define the mineral assemblage. That in itself would be pretty neat! Can you identify Zr with your
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#554
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Re: XRF - comparing Dud's with my Si-PIN
Well I don't have a beam, just Am241 buttons. So I guess that will have to wait until I get a real x-ray source. El El lun, ene. 20, 2020 a la(s) 9:19 p. m., WILLIAM S Dubyk <sdubyk@...>
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Charles David Young
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#553
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Re: XRF - comparing Dud's with my Si-PIN
You would have to get the tightest beam focus possible then zap the mineral from a variety of angles. Try that and see what you get, that might be interesting. ________________________________ Sent:
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#552
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Re: XRF - comparing Dud's with my Si-PIN
So would I be able to see anything one way or another with my Si-PIN? El El lun, ene. 20, 2020 a la(s) 9:06 p. m., WILLIAM S Dubyk <sdubyk@...> escribi¨®:
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Charles David Young
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#551
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Re: XRF - comparing Dud's with my Si-PIN
I'm sure they are Charles, for sure the ones from the South Platte peg area, those are probably intergrown with thorite, both are tetragonal and exsolve after a certain point. But it is hard to find
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#550
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