The emergence of hand-held X-ray fluorescence devices (HH-XRF) has changed the cultural approach to the analysis of ancient materials. These instruments are characterised by highly miniaturised hardware and powerful software and much of the designer's effort is devoted to encourage users to consider the device as a black box. This makes archaeologists, art historians and restorers virtually autonomous about materials analysis. However, there are specific applications, such as the investigation of copper-based artefacts, for which the user needs to go deeper into the functioning of the instrument. This paper discusses the experiments carried out to reconfigure from scratch a hand-held Bruker Tracer 5g, to compare it with an in-house developed portable spectrometer and to prepare both devices for field use. In particular, we address the optimisation of the primary filters and the calibration of the devices by considering two quantitative parameters: the limit of quantification and the relative uncertainty of quantification.
Konstantakopoulou, E., Municchia, A.C., Ferretti, R., Porcinai, S., Ferretti, M. (2023). Quantitative criteria to configure and characterise portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometers. In IMEKO TC4 International Conference on Metrology for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 2023 (pp. 704-708). International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO).
Quantitative criteria to configure and characterise portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometers
Ferretti R.;
2023-01-01
Abstract
The emergence of hand-held X-ray fluorescence devices (HH-XRF) has changed the cultural approach to the analysis of ancient materials. These instruments are characterised by highly miniaturised hardware and powerful software and much of the designer's effort is devoted to encourage users to consider the device as a black box. This makes archaeologists, art historians and restorers virtually autonomous about materials analysis. However, there are specific applications, such as the investigation of copper-based artefacts, for which the user needs to go deeper into the functioning of the instrument. This paper discusses the experiments carried out to reconfigure from scratch a hand-held Bruker Tracer 5g, to compare it with an in-house developed portable spectrometer and to prepare both devices for field use. In particular, we address the optimisation of the primary filters and the calibration of the devices by considering two quantitative parameters: the limit of quantification and the relative uncertainty of quantification.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
