As of July 30, 2008

for international journal X-Ray Spectrometry (John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Synchrotron XRF revealed Van Gogh’s hidden painting (July 29, 2008)

It is well-known that Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) often reused canvases and painted over his older works.  Specialists estimate that about one third of his early paintings conceal other compositions under them.  Recently, an international team led by Professor K. Janssens (University of Antwerp, Belgium) and Dr J. Dik (Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands) successfully applied synchrotron radiation induced X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to the painting entitled Patch of Grass (painted by Van Gogh in Paris in 1887 and owned by the Kroller-Muller Museum).  The research group recorded X-ray fluorescence intensity maps of several tens of square cm and, in particular, the distribution of Hg and Sb, which corresponds to red and light tones, respectively. In this way, it could analyze an approximate color reconstruction of the flesh tones.  Accordingly, a portrait of a woman was discovered behind the painting.  The measurement was done at DESY in Hamburg, Germany.  For more information, visit the Website, http://www.vangogh.ua.ac.be/, and see the paper, "Visualization of a Lost Painting by Vincent van Gogh Using Synchrotron Radiation Based X-ray Fluorescence Elemental Mapping", J. Dik et al., Anal. Chem., ASAP Article, 10.1021/ac800965g (2008).

High-resolution microscopy - marriage of lenseless imaging and X-ray nano beam technology (July 18, 2008)

Scanning diffraction microscopy, or ptychography, was first developed for the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM).  In the same way, by using an X-ray nano beam, one can use a STXM.  The X-ray beam is focused onto the sample via a lens, and the transmission is measured.  The image is obtained by plotting the transmission as a function of the sample position, as it is rastered across the beam.  The analysis is straightforward, but its resolution is limited by the beam size.  On the other hand, coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) now reaches resolutions below 10 nm, but the reconstruction procedures are not always easy due to the influences of data quality, sample conditions etc.  A Swiss research group led by Drs. C. David and F. Pfeiffer (Paul Scherrer Institut) recently demonstrated a ptychographic imaging method that bridges the gap between STXM and CDI by measuring complete diffraction patterns at each point of a STXM scan.  The group employed an advanced large-area pixel detector, Pilatus, to obtain the diffraction pattern efficiently.  These diffraction data were then treated with an image reconstruction algorithm developed by the team.  Several tens of thousands of diffraction images were processed to obtain one super-resolution X-ray image.  The algorithm not only reconstructs the sample but also the exact shape of the light probe resulting from the X-ray beam.  The 6.8 keV X-ray beam was focused using a zone plate, and the beam size was 300 nm.  The spatial resolution achieved was about five times higher.  For more information, see the paper, "High-Resolution Scanning X-ray Diffraction Microscopy", P. Thibault et al., Science, 321, 379 - 382 (2008).

3D XRD imaging of corrosion in steel (July 18, 2008)

The corrosion of steel-based mechanical components is said to be responsible for the loss of about 3% of annual global GDP.  Cracks can appear in stainless steel components when stress or strain is combined with a corrosive environment that attacks sensitive grain boundaries.  In nuclear power plants, certain grain boundaries can become sensitive during heat treatments or during fast neutron irradiation.  It is important to observe how these cracks grow in detail, because they have been identified as the primary cause of several critical system failures.  At the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France, Dr. A. King and his colleagues recently revealed how growing cracks interact with the 3D crystal structure of stainless steel.  The sample was a wire of 0.4 mm in diameter, and 40 keV X-rays were employed.  By using diffraction contrast tomography, the research group could observe the shapes, positions, and orientations of 362 different grains with some 1600 grain boundaries without destroying the sample.  They put the wire into a corrosive liquid, K2S4O6, and applied a load to cause microcracks to grow between the grains.  As the cracks grew, 3D tomographic scans (of 30 minutes each) were made at intervals of between several minutes and two hours to follow the progress of the cracks.  It was found that the cracks grew along the boundaries between the grains.  The technique has enabled visualization of the cracks as they grow and of certain special boundaries that resist cracking.  Information on this method is given in the following papers; ”X-ray diffraction contrast tomography: a novel technique for three-dimensional grain mapping of polycrystals. I. Direct beam case”, W. Ludwig et al., J. Appl. Crystallogr. 41, 302 (2008) and “II. The combined case”, G. Johnson et al., J. Appl. Crystallogr. 41, 310 (2008).  For more information on the present research, see the paper, "Observations of Intergranular Stress Corrosion Cracking in a Grain-Mapped Polycrystal", A. King et al., Science, 321, 382 - 385 (2008).

X-ray spectroscopy under the Bormann transmission condition (July 10, 2008)

When X-rays satisfy Bragg's law for a perfect crystal, a significant transparency to X-ray beams is observed.  This is the so-called Bormann effect, and is caused because the X-ray electric field approaches zero amplitude at the crystal planes, corresponding to almost no scattering by atoms.  Recently, Dr. S. P. Collins (Diamond Light Source, United Kingdom) and his colleagues attempted several very interesting experiments – X-ray spectroscopy under the Bormann transmission condition.  The main idea is that the electric quadrupole absorption transitions could be effectively enhanced under conditions of absorption suppression.  The measured sample is gadolinium gallium garnet (Gd₃Ga₅0₁₂) cut parallel to the (100) planes, and some new spectral features were observed in the L_I (8,376 eV), L_II (7,930 eV) and L_III (7,243 eV) edges for gadolinium, at different temperatures.  They are basically additional peaks on the low energy side, and correspond to an electric quadrupole transition from 2s, 2p_1/2 and 2p_2/3 to the narrow, half-filled 4f states, respectively.  For more information, see the paper, "Quadrupole transitions revealed by Borrmann spectroscopy", R. F. Pettifer et al., Nature, 454, 196-199 (2008).

Analysis of hyper-accumulating plants (July 9, 2008)

Recently, Professor I. Nakai (Tokyo University of Science, Japan) and his colleagues published a very interesting report on synchrotron X-ray fluorescence analysis of the cadmium hyper-accumulating plant, Arabidopsis halleri ssp. gemmifera.  To investigate the Cd accumulation mechanism, they analyzed the spatial distribution and chemical form of Cd at a cellular level.  At Japanese synchrotron facility, SPring-8, a tiny beam of 3.8 × 1.3 μm² with 37 keV X-rays was used to see Cd K X-rays.  For more information, see the paper, "Micro X-ray fluorescence imaging and micro X-ray absorption spectroscopy of cadmium hyper-accumulating plant, Arabidopsis halleri ssp. gemmifera, using high-energy synchrotron radiation", N. Fukuda et al., J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 23, 1068-1075 (2008).

A future X-ray source - FEL oscillator with ERL and optical cavity (June 17, 2008)

Recently, Professor K.-J. Kim (Argonne National Lab., USA) and his colleagues published a very interesting proposal for the world's brightest X-ray source.  In most currently on-going X-ray free electron laser (FEL) projects, self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) is employed.  It is known that SASE-FEL creates extremely brilliant, coherent X-ray pulses of 0.1 ps duration.  Due to the low repetition rate, the average brightness is only about 10,000 times compared with existing 3^rd generation synchrotron sources.  On the other hand, future X-ray sciences will require other types of X-ray laser source, with an even smaller number of photons in one pulse (to reduce radiation damage to the sample) and with much greater average intensity via a high repetition rate.  In Professor Kim’s X-ray source based on a FEL oscillator (X-FELO), a pulse of electrons is carried into an undulator as ordinary FEL, but in order to reflect back the generated X-rays into the undulator entrance, there is an optical cavity consisting of two or more Bragg reflectors with low-Z atoms and with low Debye temperature, such as diamond, beryllium oxide and sapphire crystals.  In the next step, the X-ray photons connect with the next electron bunch and again travel back along the undulator.  This pattern is repeated indefinitely with the X-ray intensity growing each time until equilibrium is reached.  As the spectral bandwidth is extremely narrow, at three to four orders of magnitude finer than those produced by SASE-FEL, the intensity of an individual X-ray pulse from an X-FELO is rather low.  But the average X-ray intensity is higher than that of SASE-FEL.  Over the past 5 years, highly advanced electron beam technologies, which can be used, for example, for a multi-GeV class energy recovery linac (ERL), have become available.  One of the key elements of Professor Kim’s idea is combination with ERL.  This is predicted to produce X-ray pulses with 10⁹ photons at a repetition rate of 1-100 MHz.  The pulses are temporarily and transversely coherent, with a rms bandwidth of about 2 meV, and rms pulse length of about 1 ps.  To gain an understanding of the original concept of X-FELO, see the paper, "Proposal for a free electron laser in the X-ray region", R. Colella and A. Luccio, Optical Commun., 50, 41-44 (1984).  For more information on the proposed X-ray source, see the paper, "A Proposal for an X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Oscillator with an Energy-Recovery Linac", K.-J. Kim et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 100, 244802 (2008).

High-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy revives Röntgen’s water structure model (June 11, 2008)

The molecular structure of liquid water has been the subject of intense debate for decades.  In 1892, German physicist W. C. Röntgen, who became famous for his discovery of X-rays, published a paper proposing a “mixture model” according to which liquid water consists of two kinds of molecules: a tetrahedral ice-like structure, and another more loosely arranged structure.  In 1933, J. D. Bernal and R. H. Fowler successfully analyzed early X-ray diffraction data on water in terms of a disordered quartz-like structure, and concluded that the unique properties of water are due to the tetrahedral geometry.  Since then, a number of experimental and theoretical studies have been published.  Nevertheless, scientists have not yet captured a clear picture of liquid water.  The debate is far from settled.  Very recently, an international collaborative team led by Dr. A. Nilsson (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory) and Professor S. Shin (RIKEN & The University of Tokyo) succeeded in obtaining X-ray spectroscopic evidence to support Röntgen’s mixture model.  Thanks to the brilliant synchrotron beamline at the SPring-8, the research group obtained some high resolution oxygen K-edge X-ray emission spectra of liquid water.  The team found that there are two distinct narrow lone-pair derived peaks assigned, respectively, to tetrahedral and strongly distorted hydrogen-bonded species.  For more information, see the paper, "High resolution X-ray emission spectroscopy of liquid water: The observation of two structural motifs", T. Tokushima et al., Chem. Phys. Lett., 460, 387-400 (2008).

Helmholtz Humboldt Research Award 2008 (June 26, 2008)

The Helmholtz Association and the Humboldt Foundation have announced the 2008 recipients of the Helmholtz Humboldt Research Award; Professors Roberto Bassi (Universita degli Studi di Verona, Italy) and Shigemasa Suga (Osaka University, Japan).  The award amounts to 60,000 Euros, and an additional amount of 25,000 Euros is made available by the Helmholtz Association if the awardee accepts the invitation to undertake research in Germany.  In the X-ray field, in addition to this year’s award winner Professor Suga, Professors Charles S. Fadley and Ian Robinson were previous recipients of this award.  For more information, visit the Web page,

http://www.helmholtz.de/en/research/research_awards/helmholtz_humboldt_research_award/

Recent review article on compact laser-plasma accelerators (June 1, 2008)

Advanced high-intensity laser systems can be used to drive electrons to velocities close to the speed of light.  A fair degree of research is now being devoted to the generation of high-energy beams that are extremely brilliant, ultra-short pulses, and have excellent spatial quality as well.  The following recently published review paper is useful for those wishing to ascertain the current status of research.  “Principles and applications of compact laser-plasma accelerators”, V. Malka et al., Nature Physics 4, 447-453 (2008).

Thermo Fisher Scientific announces new OES and XRF automation software (July 18, 2008)

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has announced the introduction of the Thermo Scientific ARL SMS version 6, a common software platform covering both Optical Emission (OES) and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometers and an automation solution.  For further information, Phone: +1-800-532-4752, analyze@thermofisher.com or visit the Web page, http://www.thermo.com/xray/

Rigaku introduces the RAPID II curved detector XRD system (June 26, 2008)

Rigaku Americas Corporation has announced the introduction of the latest version of a new large area curved imaging plate (IP) detector, the RAPID II.  Typical applications are high-resolution charge density measurement, micro-diffraction, diffuse scattering, measurement of weakly diffracting disordered materials, small molecule crystallography, wide angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), stress and texture measurements, as well as general purpose powder diffraction.  For further information, contact Thomas F. McNulty, Phone: +1-281-362-2300 Ext207, tom.mcnulty@rigaku.com, or visit the Web page, http://www.rigaku.com/

SII NanoTechnology’s new XRF analyzer with high-speed mapping capability (June 17, 2008)

SII NanoTechnology Inc. has released the SEA6000VX, an energy dispersive fluorescent X-ray analyzer.  In addition to quantitative analysis of trace metals (-1000 ppm) in a relatively small area (0.5 - 1.2 mm dia.), it can provide a map of each element by quick 2D scan.  The detector works at a high counting rate and does not require liquid nitrogen.  The price will be around 18,000,000 JPY.  For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.siint.com/en/index.shtml

PANalytical launches SuperQ thin film and solar cell analysis solutions (June 9, 2008)

PANalytical has released its new SuperQ 4.0 software, which provides solutions for thin films analysis by X-ray fluorescence (XRF).  For further information, visit the web page, http://www.panalytical.com/

PANalytical and Malvern open U.S. office (July 7, 2008)

The PANalytical and Malvern Instruments U.S. teams have announced that they celebrated the opening of their new headquarters on May 23, 2008.  Their address is as follows: 117 Flanders Road WESTBOROUGH MA 01581 USA, Phone: +1-508-6471100, Fax: +1-508-6471115 (PANalytical), Phone: +1-508-7686400, Fax: +1-508-7686403, info@malvernusa.com (Malvern).  For further information, visit the web pages, http://www.panalytical.com/ and http://www.malvern.co.uk/

Rigaku forms new company in Europe (June 9, 2008)

Rigaku Corporation has announced the formation of Rigaku Innovative Technologies Europe s.r.o. (RITE) in Prague, Czech Republic.  For further information, contact, John C. McGill, Managing Director, Address: Novodvorska 994, 142 21 Prague 4, Czech Republic, john.mcgill@Rigaku.com, or visit the web page, http://www.rigaku.com/

Jordan Valley acquires Bede Metrology (April 14, 2008)

Jordan Valley Semiconductors Ltd and Jordan Valley Semiconductors UK Ltd have acquired the business of Bede PLC and Bede Scientific Instruments Ltd.  Bede was founded in 1978 as a spinout company from England’s University of Durham.  It has been listed on the London stock exchange (LSE: BED) since 2000.  For further information, contact Meir Mimon, Jordan Valley Semiconductors Ltd, Phone: +972-4-6543666, meirm@jordanvalley.com, or visit the web page, http://www.jvsemi.com/

SpectroscopyNow.com

For additional news about X-ray analysis and other spectroscopy sciences, browse the Wiley website.

Kenji Sakurai
Director, X-Ray Physics Group, National Institute for
Materials Science (NIMS)
and Professor, Doctoral Program in Materials Science and
Engineering, Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences,
 University of Tsukuba
1-2-1, Sengen, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0047 Japan
Phone : +81-29-859-2821, Fax : +81-29-859-2801
sakurai@yuhgiri.nims.go.jp
http://www.nims.go.jp/xray/lab/