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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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: Reducing unwanted X-Rays with filters.
If it's the one with Am_X8, the detector WAS the target. Nothing but air between them. An effort to see it for myself rather than go to the attenuation charts. Info gathered will be useful later.Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#650
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Re: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
Here's the one from just now, done with the new filter stack:
.mca attached.
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GEOelectronics@...
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#649
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Re: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
I think you¡¯re right, Dud. I questioned the identification of Kr and Ru, but didn¡¯t pursue the possibilities of Kb or sum peaks. Both of your arguments seem like probable explanations given the
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Ken Sejkora
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#648
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Re: Reducing unwanted X-Rays with filters. TUBE EXCITERS
Beautiful results, 10 second scan. This was a cool project and great experience for the cabinet XRF machine project.
.mca file attached.
Geo>K0FF
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GEOelectronics@...
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#647
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Reducing unwanted X-Rays with filters. TUBE EXCITERS
A typical X-Ray tube exciter module as made by Kevex, Oxford, Thermo and others is a 10 Watt 50 kV tube that can handle 0.2 mA? (200 microAmps) of current.
This is a good match to "X-Ray Image
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GEOelectronics@...
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#646
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Re: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
Geo,
I don¡¯t have the .mca file but looking at the mystery wire .png the Ka1 Ru reported at 19.7 would actually be the Mo Kb1 at 19.6.
The no match at 15.55 would appear to be a Ni -Cu sum peak at
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Dude
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#645
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Re: Reducing unwanted X-Rays with filters.
I¡¯ve been out all week with the flu and playing catch up right now.
Charles¡¯s new labeling looks nice.
If someone is going to run another Al filter test it would be nice to use a metal standard
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Dude
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#644
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Re: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
Interesting observation, Geo. I had noticed the same thing, that the end seems to be more ¡®magnetic¡¯ than the sides. It might be interesting to take a weak magnet and try the same thing with a
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Ken Sejkora
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#643
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Re: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
Looks good Ken.
I get? 0.00850 but the millivoltmeter hasn't been turned on for a while. Will check again tomorrow after leaving it on overnight. One desk in the shop is setup just for resistor
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GEOelectronics@...
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#642
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Re: Reducing unwanted X-Rays with filters. ISOTOPE EXCITERS
Thanks Charles.
Even a little helps. Most of my interference is scattered off the target, so the less we present to it the better. No way nor do we need to worry about the 59.5, it's above the range
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GEOelectronics@...
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#641
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Re: Reducing unwanted X-Rays with filters. ISOTOPE EXCITERS
Excellent, George. I have some 1/64" Al sheeting that I'll try when I get
a chance. About 5 layers should do it.
Charles
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Charles David Young
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#640
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Re: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
Interesting. Now that you reminded, I think there are still some neutral coil adjusting tools down in the workshop, left over from the radio says. I'll dig one of those out and test it on XRF. for
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GEOelectronics@...
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#639
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Reducing unwanted X-Rays with filters. ISOTOPE EXCITERS
In medical X-Ray imaging, it was long ago discovered that the lowest energies coming from the X-Ray generator did nothing at all to improve the image on the film, but rather, instead of penetrating
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GEOelectronics@...
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#638
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Re: Ta Y Zr La Ce XRF
Nice work Charles. Ask if you have any questions, but looks like you already have it figured out.Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#637
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Ta Y Zr La Ce XRF
I am getting ready to start a series of tests so I wanted to make sure my
detector is calibrated correctly using a series of elements. The results
show the calibration to be pretty darn close.
In
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Charles David Young
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#636
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Re: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
All good tests and yes they add to the knowledge base. Use what you have, make the most of it.Your last clue was the give away, it's a "taught-wire PID". We won't talk about its tech but we can sure
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GEOelectronics@...
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#635
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Re: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
Greetings to the group,
Some more interesting properties of the ¡°mystery wire¡±. Although I don¡¯t have a way to quantify the results, I can at least qualify the results.
Regarding the magnetic
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Ken Sejkora
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#634
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Re: Ken's "Mystery Wire"
Hi Geo,
I moved in June 2019, so there are still boxes of junk (er, I mean ¡°components¡±) waiting to be unpacked. I couldn¡¯t find my 1% 100-Ohm power resistor or original test jig, but was able
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Ken Sejkora
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#633
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Re: 'Resolution' of XRF?
Thanks for your thoughts Ken. Yes for sure we know relative thickness is a factor both in pure bare metal XRF and especially in plated items.The copper foil is measured to be .001" or 0.0254mmthe
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GEOelectronics@...
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#632
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Re: 'Resolution' of XRF?
Thanks for the brain teaser, Geo. Just a couple of guesses, and ideas for additional experiments. My first inclination is that in your element ¡®sandwich¡¯, the copper foil was significantly
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Ken Sejkora
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#631
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