Long-term accuracy and precision of PIXE and PIGE measurements for thin and thick sample analyses

Cohen, DD; Siegele, R; Orlic, I; Stelcer, E

Long-term accuracy and precision of PIXE and PIGE measurements for thin and thick sample analyses

Date

2002-04

Authors

Publisher

Elsevier

Abstract

This paper describes PIXE/PIGE measurements on thin Micromatter Standard (±5%) foils run over a period of 10 years. The selected foils were typically 50 μg/cm2 thick and covered the commonly used PIXE X-ray energy range 1.4-20 keV and the light elements F and Na for PIGE studies. For the thousands of thick obsidian and pottery samples analysed over a 6-year period, the Ohio Red Clay standard has been used for both PIXE and PIGE calibration of a range of elements from Li to Rb. For PIXE, the long-term accuracy could be as low as ±1.6% for major elements with precision ranging from ±5% to ±10% depending on the elemental concentration. For PIGE, accuracies were around ±5% with precision ranging from ±5% in thick samples to ±15% in thin samples or for low yield γ-ray production. © 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Keywords

PIXE analysis, Accuracy, Accelerators, Van De Graaff Accelerators, Data, Trace amounts, Concentration ratio, Clays, Calibration standards

Citation

Cohen, D. D., Siegele, R., Orlic, I., & Stelcer, E. (2002). Long-term accuracy and precision of PIXE and PIGE measurements for thin and thick sample analyses. Paper presented to the 9th International Conference on PIXE and its Analytical Applications, Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 8-12 June 2001. In Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 189(1), 81-85. doi:10.1016/S0168-583X(01)01011-4