engleski

A portable mili/micro instrument for X-ray fluorescence analysis

A handheld portable instrument for X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis, featuring some novel solutions, was designed and constructed. Depending on the analytical needs, the device can provide either mili or micro X-ray beam for sample excitation, by employing a motorized collimator interchanger to switch between a pinhole collimator (spot size ca. 1.5 mm) and a polycapillary lens (spot size ca. 45 µm). As such, it is a first handheld XRF instrument, which allows either mili or micro applications, with a touch of a button/mouse click. The X-ray beam is provided by a low power end-window X-ray tube (50 kV, 0.2 mA) and the fluorescent radiation is collected by a Peltier cooled SDD with an energy resolution of ca. 140 eV. The instrument is battery operated and therefore fully autonomous. The possibility for alternative use of a mili and micro X-ray beam in a single handheld device expands the versatility and potential usage of portable XRF instrumentation to an even wider range of applications. When in a mili mode it allows precise screening and bulk analysis, and when in a micro mode it allows micro-XRF applications for investigation of microsamples or microscopic details on larger objects. This paper reports some preliminary testing results of the instrument, where its analytical capabilities are tested on various reference materials and on a real object.

XRF ; micro-XRF ; portable instrument ; hand-held instrument ; polycapillary lens

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