X-ray spectral analysis development in Novosibirsk city (Electron probe microanalysis and X-ray fluorescence analysis using the synchrotron radiation)

Abstract

Current article considers the contribution of X-ray physicists from the city of Novosibirsk to the formation and development of the two X-ray spectral analysis directions: electron probe microanalysis and X-ray fluorescence analysis using the synchrotron radiation. The research on geological topics at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences using the MS-46 electron probe microanalyzer of the French company CAMECA (since 1967) served as the basis for the development of methods for the quantitative X-ray microanalysis of rock-forming minerals as the methods for quantitative determination of the contents of elements with low atomic numbers in the long-wavelength X-ray region were still in their infancy. With the development and the improvement of the method’s technical base (microprobes JXA-5A, JEOL, 1975; Kamebaks Micro, CAMECA, 1981; JXA-8100, JEOL, 2003; JXA-8230, JEOL, 2016; electronic computing), the software for controlling the operation of devices and converting the measured intensities of the analytical lines into the concentration of elements continued to changed and improve. The first results of elemental analysis, obtained using the synchrotron radiation to excite X-ray fluorescence at the VEPP-3 accelerating ring at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, were published in1977. Inthe following years, at the station of elemental SRXRF, samples of various nature were studied — biological (bio tissues of the heart, liver, lungs, hairs, bones, plants), geological, environmental objects (soils, sediments, aerosols, etc.), archaeological sites as well as new technological materials. The procedures for the determination of chemical elements in low-mass samples (milligrams) in unique samples of lunar soil samples, biopsy material of human myocardial tissues, etc. have been developed. The scanning device at the elemental SRXRF station made it possible to obtain the information for reconstructing the climate change for different periods of time – from 100 to 1000 years. A new non-destructive method of confocal X-ray microscopy for studying micro-objects and visualizing the distribution of chemical elements in extended objects on this station are currently being developed.