Chemgineer - 25-8-2024 at 04:22
I purchased a Radiacode 103 scintillation gamma spectrometer. It has been allot of fun and I like it.
I saw someone on Youtube using an americium source to identify different elements using it, has anyone got any info on how to do this, got any charts
for the Ev values for different elements?
phlogiston - 26-8-2024 at 03:55
Can you provide a link to that video?
I haven't seen the video, but is very likely based on x-ray fluorescence, or XRF.
X-rays from the americium can kick electrons out of the inner shells of atoms in the sample. When electrons decay to fill the vacancies in the inner
shells, x-rays are emitted with energies that depend on the charge of the nucleus (i.e. characteristic for each element).
Here is a table with the energies associated with these decays (from which you can easily calculate the corresponding wavelengths):
https://xdb.lbl.gov/Section1/Table_1-2.pdf
[Edited on 26-8-2024 by phlogiston]