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Mikael Elfman

Researcher

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A new quantitative X-ray system for micro-PIXE analysis

Author

  • Jan Pallon
  • Nathaly De La Rosa
  • Mikael Elfman
  • Per Kristiansson
  • E.J. Charlotta Nilsson
  • Linus Ros

Summary, in English

Particle Induced X-ray Emission is a well-established technique for quantitative elemental analysis down to trace levels. During microbeam analysis, where the beam is collimated and focused into a small spot, the beam current reduces to nA or less. The generation of characteristic X-rays is reduced in the same proportion, leading to long data-acquisition times. This can partly be compensated for by using detectors with a large solid angle. In this work, the performance of an annular eight-element silicon drift detector with a total solid angle of 261 msr is described. The initial calibration of the detector was performed using thin elemental standards. Charge measurement was carried out both in a Faraday Cup positioned after the sample and by a pre-sample electrostatic deflection system sampling the beam charge into another Faraday Cup. The two methods were used in parallel and compared during the calibration measurements. A recently installed Versa Module Europe (VME) based data acquisition system equipped with, for example, multi-hit time-to-digital converters, amplifiers, and 32-channel scalers, was used to record data in event-by-event mode for simultaneous data evaluation on multiple computers. Off-line dead time and pile-up corrections were made on the event data that was sorted into spectra and fitted with the GeoPIXE software. The pre-sample deflection charge measurement gave consistent values for the calibration, and this is an important observation implying that non-conductive and thick samples will be able to quantify without the use of internal standards.

Department/s

  • Nuclear physics

Publishing year

2017-09

Language

English

Pages

319-324

Publication/Series

X-Ray Spectrometry

Volume

46

Issue

5

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Topic

  • Accelerator Physics and Instrumentation

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0049-8246