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 If a piece of information is incorrect, a link outdated, or the presentation choppy or unclear, the user can just click "Edit Page" at the bottom and then fix the mistake.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: DppMCA vs Theremino
Charles,
The peak between your Fe esc and the Am label isn¡¯t La I eyeballed and the centroid at 4.5 appears to be a Ti Ka. If the cal is off just a bit it could be the Fe esc although it appears to
By
Dude
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#938
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Re: DppMCA vs Theremino
George, here is the .mca that I used for this example and will use to try
and replicate the process with DppMCA.
Charles
By
Charles David Young
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#937
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Re: DppMCA vs Theremino
Charles,
I assume this was slider cal¡¯d. Why is Fe escape in the Am button? Or are these 2 different buttons? What Am energy is it? This is quick and dirty but can still miss a lot of stuff. You
By
Dude
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#936
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Re: DppMCA vs Theremino
I have a copy here someplace but it would be old and haven¡¯t used it in awhile.
Its available at
https://www.jimfitz.co.uk/fitzpeak.htm
Dud
Sent: Sunday, March 8, 2020 8:53 AM
To:
By
Dude
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#935
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Re: DppMCA vs Theremino
"Regarding the possibility of confusing Nb peaks with others, the precise alignment of all available emission lines for Nb pretty much eliminates this."Thanks, it's really good to hear that, and I'll
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#934
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
That's a nice graphic display too Dud, simple, direct. "Why does the DppMCA software limit you to 411? Is it a gain setting problem?"Correct, the last allowed click position for course gain is
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#933
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
Geo,
Very good on the cal procedure and like every other laboratory procedure spot checks and end of day are essential. The Ba 133 gives other useful lines to double check the Ecal with. A Fe-55 and
By
Dude
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#932
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Re: DppMCA vs Theremino
Thanks, George.
Regarding the possibility of confusing Nb peaks with others, the precise
alignment of all available emission lines for Nb pretty much eliminates
this. Attached is the same scan with
By
Charles David Young
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#931
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Re: DppMCA vs Theremino
Nice presentation Charles, thanks, and in only a few minutes- that's good. Wow, that Si-PIN really gives a ton of data points.
One suggestion, make duplicate run, without exciter. Make sure Nb peaks
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#930
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Re: DppMCA vs Theremino
If I'm really into getting all I can from the analysis step, I use
FitzPeaks. You can store the file from Theremino in the appropriate format
and import it into FitzPeaks. I don't see this analysis
By
W0LEV
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#929
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DppMCA vs Theremino
Based on Dud's encouragement I will try and use DppMCA for analysis. To be
clear, I tried it previously when I first got the Amptek system and got
discouraged. I'll give it another try and document
By
Charles David Young
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#928
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
Thanks Dud, With Si-PIN the evolved calibration procedure for general scans here has evolved into what may become my standard.The "stage is set" for a range of 0-61 keV, 4096 channels.5.9 keV the Mn
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#927
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
Geo,
Bringing in an old .mca file will use the old cal. It seems the Ecal in the View / preferences tab only works for a new acquisition. If you need to change an old cal you¡¯ll need to reenter the
By
Dude
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#926
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
Charles,
I for the life of me can¡¯t understand your thinking. You have a $7,000 professional Si-Pin spectrometer system and software that is designed specifically to determine elemental unknown¡¯s
By
Dude
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#925
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
My gear is tied up with some LONG runs, closing on 100 hours, but I'm working on my libraries between chores.Geo
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#924
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
Here is the .mca that I am now pointed to in View menu / Preferences. BTW,
just pointing to a .mca file here is kind of buggy. I eventually had to
enter it manually.
The E cal is 4 peaks and it is
By
Charles David Young
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#923
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
"Instead it uses the E cal of a specific .mca file that you have to point to in the View menu / Preferences."GOOD TO KNOW THAT!I've been struggling with that same issue...¡.THANKS Charles!George
By
GEOelectronics@...
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#922
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
All that being said I can see the value of having a precise E cal saved in
my .mca files so that others can view them in DppMCA with the minimum of
hassle. What had eluded me until now was how DppMCA
By
Charles David Young
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#920
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
" These spectra are wrong as well. It appears you have a bad energy cal
that you were using."
Sorry, but my Theremino image of these spectra speaks for itself. The
energy cal over the entire range
By
Charles David Young
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#919
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Re: Si-PIN with a view
Charles,
These spectra are wrong as well. It appears you have a bad energy cal that you were using.
This is the Ag cal on 2/24/202
START_TIME - 02/24/2020 04:58:50
SERIAL_NUMBER -
By
Dude
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#918
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