Internal Conversion in Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis of Actinide-containing Materials
The use of X-ray elemental analysis tools like energy dispersive X-ray EDS is described in them context of the investigation of nuclear materials. These materials contain radioactive elements, particularly alpha-decaying actinides that affect the quantitative EDS measurement by producing interferences in the X-ray spectra. These interferences originating from X-ray emission are the result of internal conversion by the daughter atoms from the alpha-decaying actinides. The strong interferences affect primarily the L X-ray lines from the actinides in the typical energy range used for EDS analysis and would require the use of the M lines.
However, it is typically at the energy of the actinide’s M lines that the interferences are dominant. The artifacts produced in the X-ray analysis are described and illustrated by some typical examples of analysis of actinidebearing material.
WISS Thierry;
THIELE Hartmut;
CREMER Bert;
RAY Ian;
2007-07-19
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
JRC37957
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