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XRF_beamline.md 6.93 KiB

X-Ray Fluorescence beamline (XRF)

Ref. (SPE): Milan Prica, Roberto Borghes, Valentina Chenda

Ref. (XRF): https://www.elettra.eu/lightsources/elettra/elettra-beamlines/microfluorescence/de.html

Experimental Activities

XRF beamline is developed by Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste and operated in partnership with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

X-Ray Fluorescence is a versatile technique which can investigate solids, liquids, artworks, air particulates, inks, etc… It provides information on the elemental composition of a sample.

At the XRF beamline, experiments can be carried out under ambient conditions or in the ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) endstation, where the pressures can be lowered down to 10-9mbar.

The UHV endstation is equipped with a 7-axes manipulator to adjust the sample orientation with respect to the X-ray beam and/or the detectors.

Available techniques

  • 2D XRF and XANES: quantitative chemical analysis over different areas of the sample;
  • Grazing Incidence XRF and XANES: ideal for nano-layered structures or shallow dopants in semiconductors with nm depth resolution.
  • Total Reflection XRF and XANES: for ultra-trace elemental/chemical characterization of liquid samples residues and micro/nanoparticles on smooth surfaces;
  • X-Ray Reflectivity (XRR): for structural analysis of thin films and multi-layers.

There is extensive user documentation on the Elettra website written by the beamline scientist, Ilaria Carlomagno.
https://www.elettra.eu/lightsources/elettra/elettra-beamlines/microfluorescence/useful-procedures.html

Troubleshooting

Fluorescence experiments are controlled by IAEA software running on their Windows machines. We can reach IAEA tango database from our network and vice-versa. IAEA Tango database is iaea-server.elettra.trieste.it:20000

XRF Monochromator is prone to malfunctions due to a very complex design. It includes a collimator and a refocusing mirror in the same chamber with the monochromator. The monochromator has 5 channels: Si, InSb, HE, ME and LE. For the first two, the crystal separations may be regulated. Motor controllers include Galil, SmarAct, PI and Newfocus.

On the xrf-desktop-01 workstation the network speed has changed a few times from gigabit to the slowest setting, 10Kb/s. The cause is yet unknown. <-- Issue fixed in 2022.

Control system machines

Beamline controls and EXAFS experiments run on Elettra hardware and software.

  • xrf-control-01.blcs.elettra.trieste.it: Dismissed in 2023.

  • xrf-control-02.blcs.elettra.trieste.it: Virtual machine that hosts the Tango database (port 20000) and all the Tango devices (except the IAEA ones, see below). Ubuntu 18.04 and Tango-9.3.4. Login with the VUO account as on the latest installations. Devices are deployed in /runtime/bin, configurations in /runtime/etc (user: controls).

  • iaea-server.elettra.eu: is the old Windows PC located in the corner of the XRF control room. Remote access is only possible with TightVNC. Beamline staff has the login credentials. Tango devices (all C++) for IAEA detectors and 7-axes manipulator run on another host that is inside the hutch and accessed from this PC. An Astor-simulating application that starts and stops tango devices is running on the host. Regular Astor cannot be used due to the starter issues but Jive is available. TANGO_HOST is iaea-server.elettra.trieste.it:20000

Beamline workstations

Both xrf-desktop-01 and xrf-desktop-02 have been reinstalled in 2023 with the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Tango-9.3.4. Python3 versions of all important packages are available (PyTango, hdf, numpy...) Login with the VUO credentials.