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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
"Interesting results, though not surprising. Although a magnet won¡¯t pick it up, not even a good neodymium magnet, a tiny neodymium magnet will ¡°stick¡± to it, indicating that it is slightly
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GEOelectronics@...
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#630
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Re: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
Thanks for scanning the wire, Geo. Interesting results, though not surprising. Although a magnet won¡¯t pick it up, not even a good neodymium magnet, a tiny neodymium magnet will ¡°stick¡± to it,
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Ken Sejkora
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#629
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Re: 'Resolution' of XRF?
Great question Ken. I put together an experiment to at least answer some of it.
Characteristic X-Rays come from atoms heavier than? He when their electron shells are disturbed. Every electron in
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GEOelectronics@...
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#628
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Ken's "Mystery Wire"
Member Ken S sent in a wire labeled "Mystery Wire".
It is silver in color, very hard but not springy. Non magnetic. Extremely light for its volume.
Many more tests to be done, but XRF was easy, and
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GEOelectronics@...
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#627
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Re: allanite-La using Am241 on Pb shield wrapped with Al foil
Thanks for trying that Charles. The idea is to eliminate the 13.9 and 17.7 keV X-Rays from the exciter source before it even strikes the target. There is a sweet spot with absorbers (aluminum) that
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GEOelectronics@...
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#626
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Re: allanite-La using Am241 on Pb shield wrapped with Al foil
Here is the specimen. The visible crystals are magnetite and perhaps
epidote. The allanite-La is evidently in the matrix. Other specimens from
this locality cite data published by Del Tanago et al.
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Charles David Young
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#625
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allanite-La using Am241 on Pb shield wrapped with Al foil
At George's suggestion I have been experimenting with wrapping the Am241
source with Al foil. It seems to have improved the already very good
results somewhat.
The target is an interesting specimen
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Charles David Young
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#624
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy OT- XRF Bassetite under X-Ray tube
Dud, the veins at White Signal where Charles is digging around are also Au-Bi-Cu, in fact originally mined for gold. Locally Ag and Pb, too.
Steve
________________________________
Sent: Tuesday,
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#623
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy OT- XRF Bassetite under X-Ray tube
Charles,
It is a Si-Pin. You¡¯ll note the 4 pt cal is very linear with deviations of 0, -0.15, 0.03 and 0.16 and the same when using a quadratic fit. Geo reran the cal and only shifted the 5.6
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Dude
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#622
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy OT- XRF Bassetite under X-Ray tube
Yes Si-PIN, same exact unit as yours Charles.
Calibration points depend on # of channels and especially gain settings. This is addressed in setup, because there is non standard. Sometimes you want 512
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GEOelectronics@...
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#621
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Re: 2020 Portable X-Ray Tube XRF Outfit.CDY's Basstite mineral
this picture shows the calibration slope on the 50kVp .mca, what am I missing? This slope is calculated by the DppMCA program, on the same drop down menu that calibration is eneted. The box is marked
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GEOelectronics@...
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#620
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy OT- XRF Bassetite under X-Ray tube
Yeah, this confuses me as well. Is this Si-PIN? The cal is 4 points that
are not linear and very different from the 2 point cal that I have been
using with Si-PIN.
Charles
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Charles David Young
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#619
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Re: 'Resolution' of XRF?
Hi Ken, welcome here and thanks for the great question.
I'll post some pictures soon, and I'm sure other members will do the same, but right now, use this link to print a copy of the
XRF Periodic
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GEOelectronics@...
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#618
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'Resolution' of XRF?
Greetings all,
I'm a newcomer to the group (thanks Geo for granting me membership), and am amazed at the technical knowledge of the members.? I've certainly got a lot to learn about XRF. I was
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Ken Sejkora
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#617
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Re: 2020 Portable X-Ray Tube XRF Outfit.CDY's Basstite mineral
OK will do tomorrow. Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#616
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Re: 2020 Portable X-Ray Tube XRF Outfit.CDY's Basstite mineral
Didn¡¯t Hel both Fe and U appear to be shifted to the right. Run a pure or mixed metal there may be some interference here.
Dud
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2020 12:55 PM
To:
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Dude
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#615
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Re: 2020 Portable X-Ray Tube XRF Outfit.CDY's Basstite mineral
Dudley, just double checked, cal, if you want to look again, change 5.9 keV from 202 to Ch. 198.
Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#614
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy OT- XRF Bassetite under X-Ray tube
Skip over to the "2020" thread for the latest Dud.By the way the telephone is on here if you need.Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#613
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Re: 2020 Portable X-Ray Tube XRF Outfit.CDY's Basstite mineral
Here we go Charles, your Bassetite sample under XRF via X-Ray tube, shown here in LINEAR representation to give an idea of proportion, +/- sensor efficiency and beam peak energy.
Before anyone runs
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GEOelectronics@...
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#612
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Re: cyrtolite Little Patsy OT- XRF Bassetite under X-Ray tube
Geo,
Something is wrong here. Is your E cal correct? The ¡°Fe¡± is not centered and these peaks are too broad. I assume you¡¯re using the new sample chamber. Where is this background coming from?
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Dude
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#611
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