Challenging X-ray Fluorescence Applications for Environmental Studies at XLab Frascati

This is the final, published version of the paper "Cappuccio G, Cibin G, Dabagov SB, Di Filippo A, Piovesan G, Hampai D, Maggi V, Marcelli A. Challenging X-ray Fluorescence Applications for Environmental Studies at XLab Frascati. Condensed Matter. 2018; 3(4):33"    https://www.mdpi.com/2410-3896/3/4/33/htm

In this work, we will report applications of the total external X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) station, a prototype assembled at the XLab Frascati laboratory (XlabF) at the INFN National Laboratories of Frascati (INFN LNF). XlabF has been established as a facility to study, design and develop X-ray optics, in particular, polycapillary lenses, as well as to perform X-ray experiments for both elemental analysis and tomography. The combination of low-power conventional sources and policapillary optics allows assembling a prototype that can provide a quasi-parallel intense beam for detailed X-ray spectroscopic analysis of extremely low concentrated samples, down to ng/g. We present elemental analysis results of elements contained in tree rings and of dust stored in deep ice cores. In addition to performing challenging environmental research studies, other experiments aim to characterize novel optics and to evaluate original experimental schemes for X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF and TXRF) and X-ray imaging.