Mini electron-probe X-ray fluorescence instrument

Professor J. Kawai (Kyoto University, Japan; Associate editor of X-ray Spectrometry) and his colleagues recently developed a novel tiny X-ray instrument equipped with a pyroelectric LiTaO₃ crystal as an electron source, a sample stage and an X-ray detector. The research group found that adequate X-ray fluorescence spectra can be measured for 0.03 mm² titanium, iron, and nickel wires. For more information, see the paper, "Development of Miniaturized Electron Probe X-ray Microanalyzer", S. Imashuku et al., Anal. Chem., 83, 8363 (2011).