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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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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UX2-234: Testing this unusual 1" beta check disc.
25mm diameter but 10mm thick, and much heavier than a normal test disk.
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GEOelectronics@...
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#781
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Edited
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Re: Wavelenght Dispersive Microanalysis
Maybe.
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#780
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Re: Wavelenght Dispersive Microanalysis
WDS is definitely on topic Steve, We welcome any and all threads concerning the practice.One of the things I do is service the Tel-X-Ometer unit, it is a sort of college level WDS and all around X-Ray
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GEOelectronics@...
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#779
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Wavelenght Dispersive Microanalysis
I was talking to Mike Spilde at UNM about mineral analyses for some of the low Z elements like Be, since you can't do that with xrf. He gave me some information about how he does it with this WDS
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#778
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Re: Trinitite
Here is scan again ref message #773
Geo
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#774
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Re: Trinitite
Attached is a fresh .mca scan of the larger one of the 2 pieces of unusual Trinitite. This scan is of a surface, the earlier scan above (just a picture) was of an edge. The edge is most interesting
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#773
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Re: Trinitite
Concerning the 13-17 keV X-Rays in Trinitite.
When we detect Np- X-Rays, where do they come from?
One way is from XRFing Neptunium element by adding energy to it.
The other obvious way is by
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#772
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Re: Trinitite
Yep, that's the one and only I've found too. Pretty sure that was Jon R's work for Bill K-s book.Sure would like to see many more HPGe Trinititte scans, especially of matereril that is not sand.Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#771
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Re: Trinitite
Send the mca files with your pictures and a brief write up of the set up.
Dud
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2020 12:18 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [XRF] Trinitite
Ok this one IS Trinitite,
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Dude
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#770
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Re: Trinitite
Pretty cool Geo. Attached is a part of the HP-Ge scan of trinitite in the Pittauerova paper, the peaks in grey are x-rays. Interesting.
Steve
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Sent: Tuesday, February
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#769
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Re: Trinitite
Ok this one IS Trinitite, but an unusual form, perhaps unique, I suspect this has no Europium, etc. but does have the usual plutonium daughters and Cs-137 fission
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GEOelectronics@...
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#768
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Edited
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Re: Brannerite! (or is it?)
Dud,
Gunnar is in room 266 at this venue. He has a lot of interesting stuff
including petscheckite associated with columbite-Fe. Perhaps you would
have better luck understanding his mineral id
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Charles David Young
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#767
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Re: Trinitite
Not Trinitite, but a tool I use for calibration of the instruments when testing Trinitite.
Uranium L and y (gamma) Lines:
Geo>K0FF
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GEOelectronics@...
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#766
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Re: Brannerite! (or is it?)
Thanks for the offer and for the sodium offer.I'll keep that in mind and appreciate. Right now I'm swamped with re-running all my present samples on the Si-PIN.Say Steve, do you know Bruze?Geo>K0FF
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GEOelectronics@...
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#765
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Re: Brannerite! (or is it?)
Charles,
I can¡¯t tell if there is any Th there from the XRF. Run a gamma spec and see. It¡¯s interesting that there is some Ba there which interferes with the Ti
Where is he located I¡¯d like
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Dude
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#764
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Re: Brannerite! (or is it?)
Late to the party, sorry, was Ti found?Geo
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GEOelectronics@...
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#763
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Re: Brannerite! (or is it?)
Sorry that I forgot to attach the .mca file. Here it is.
So I went back to the dealer today. Gunnar Faerber is a highly experienced
collector and has his own analysis equipment. Unfortunately,
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Charles David Young
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#762
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Re: Brannerite! (or is it?)
If you need a chunk or monazite, let me know, I've got plenty of it.
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Sent: Monday, February 10, 2020 8:25 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [XRF]
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#761
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Re: Brannerite! (or is it?)
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GEOelectronics@...
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#760
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Re: Brannerite! (or is it?)
You are correct Geo, those are not very accurate. Charles ran a specimen of xenotime from Madagascar that I had in my collection for years, a rather expensive one. It may have been from Madagascar so
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WILLIAM S Dubyk
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#759
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