Development of a compact grazing exit X-ray fluorescence spectrometer for fast trace elemental analysis

Abstract

A compact grazing exit X-ray fluorescence (GE-XRF) spectrometer was developed in the laboratory. An Al cylindrical collimator for the primary X-rays was placed just above the sample stage. This collimator also played the role of an exit slit to detect fluorescent X-rays at small grazing exit angles. Therefore, no additional exit slit was used in this setup, leading to a compact design. The entire size of the analysis equipment was 80mm×200mm×170mm (horizontal×vertical×height). The maximum exit angle was adjusted to the height of the sample stage. The background was drastically reduced at grazing exit angles, enabling trace elemental analysis. A calibration curve was obtained using 10μL Ga solutions. Accordingly, the detection limit for Ga was evaluated to be 20ppb.