The measurement of trace elements is important across a wide variety of materials characterization problems. When measuring
small glass fragments collected from crime and accident scenes, forensics experts analyze trace strontium (Sr) and zirconium
(Zr) typically unintentionally incorporated into the glass during manufacturing as one point of identification or comparison.
Traces of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) are measured in a wide variety of commercial materials for verification of adherence
to environmental regulations such as the European Union's Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive. Trace chlorine
(Cl) is depth profiled in concrete to quantify ion permeation from deicing agents. In these cases and many others, improvements
in detector performance can lead to improvements in micro-XRF sensitivity and faster data collection, thereby providing users
with faster, more accurate results.
Up to now, the Orbis micro-XRF analyzer could be configured with two different X-ray detectors.
• 80 mm2 Si{Li} detector
o Liquid nitrogen cooled
o Largest active area
o High spectral resolution
o Moderate throughput
•Apollo XRF-XL Silicon Drift Detector (SDD)
o Electrically cooled
o Moderate active area
o High spectral resolution
o High throughput
The Si{Li} detector technology is the most mature XRF detector technology having been developed and commercialized about 50
years ago. Over the last decade or so, XRF detector developments have moved towards electrically cooled silicon drift detectors
providing comparatively better spectral resolution at significantly higher throughput rates. The newly launched Apollo XRF-ML-50
detector is an SDD with improved active area yielding a larger solid angle of signal collection while maintaining high spectral
resolution and throughput. This allows for improved overall sensitivity and measurement speed in many applications.
