A miniature x-ray fluorescence setup

Abstract

A miniature low-power x-ray fluorescence (XRF) setup has been designed, realized, and tested in vacuum. The experimental setup is centimeter sized and consists of an x-ray source and an electrically cooled silicon detector. The x-ray source has diamond membrane electrodes; the cathode is a field emitting microstructure and the anode is a metal film deposited on a diamond membrane. Anode radiation emergent through one of the diamond membrane electrodes induces characteristic x-ray radiation from a sample. By miniaturization of an XRF setup extremely low power consumption with acceptable yield and signal level is possible because of the small distances involved between source and sample and between sample and detector. The lightweighted XRF setup is intended for in situ materials analysis, e.g., for spacecraft applications, or probe mounted for portable mineralogy, archaeometry, or forensic equipment. In this article an initial test of the fluorescence setup is described and qualitative experimental results are presented and analyzed.