Elemental analysis using radioisotope excited X-ray fluorescence

The measurement of energies and intensities of fluorescent X-rays emitted from a given material when atoms are bombarded with suitable projectiles like electrons, protons, α-particles or protons has been successfully used for non-destructive elemental analysis. Use of radioisotopes as a source of exciting radiation in combination with high resolution semiconductor detectors in X-ray fluorescence has found wide applications in elemental analysis. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence is useful in multi-elemental analysis, and thus finds a wide variety of applications. A radioisotope excited X-ray fluorescence spectrometer consisting of a 30 mm2 × 3 mm Si(Li) detector having a resolution of 200 eV at 5.9 keV coupled to a System 100 Canberra multichannel analyser has been used. A side source geometry using 20 mCi 109Cd source together with PC AXIL software have been used for the study of environmental and geological samples in Botswana.