Benchtop Nonresonant X-ray Emission Spectroscopy: Coming Soon to Laboratories and XAS Beamlines Near You?

TL;DR

This paper evaluates a new benchtop nonresonant X-ray emission spectroscopy system, demonstrating its effectiveness in laboratory settings with high count rates, reproducible energy calibration, and good agreement with synchrotron data, expanding XES applications.

Contribution

The study introduces and critically assesses a cost-effective, easy-to-operate benchtop XES instrument capable of high-quality measurements comparable to synchrotron sources.

Findings

Peak count rates of ~5000/s for concentrated samples

Reproducible energy scale within 25 meV

Good agreement with synchrotron measurements

Abstract

Recently developed instrumentation at the University of Washington has allowed for nonresonant x-ray emission spectra (XES) to be measured in a laboratory-setting with an inexpensive, easily operated system. We present a critical evaluation of this equipment by means of K\b{eta} and valence-level XES measurements for several Co compounds. We find peak count rates of ~5000/s for concentrated samples and a robust relative energy scale with reproducibility of 25 meV or better. We furthermore find excellent agreement with synchrotron measurements with only modest loss in energy resolution. Instruments such as ours, based on only conventional sources that are widely sold for elemental analysis by x-ray fluorescence, can fill an important role to diversify the research applications of XES both by their presence in non-synchrotron laboratories and by their use in conjunction with XAFS beamlines where the complementarity of XAFS and XES holds high scientific potential.