Energy selective X-ray diffraction: A novel method to obtain phase information of material in A vial

Abstract

Energy selective x-ray diffraction (ESXRD) is proposed as a means to identify the phase information of material in a vial. This method is based on the energy dispersive detector instead of the combination of monochromator and scintillator detector to collect scattering signals. In order to select a suitable x-ray radiation source that can penetrate the vial and generate diffraction signals of sufficient intensity, we performed an energy spectrum simulation of metals with atomic number range from 29 to 92 by the Geant4 simulator and obtained the photon yields of the characteristic x-rays of these metals. On the basis of this simulation, an ESXRD device based on a tungsten target x-ray source and a cadmium telluride detector was built. The diffraction data sets of silicon powder in a glass vial (an outer diameter of 8 mm and a wall thickness of 0.5 mm) and in a 304 stainless-steel vial (an outer diameter of 5 mm and a wall thickness of 0.2 mm) have been collected by this device. The experiments demonstrate that the ESXRD method could be used to infer the phase information of material in a vial.