An analysis apparatus comprises: a moveable stage assembly; a sample holder on a top surface of the stage assembly; a first photon source and a first photon detector or detector array, the first photon source being configured to emit a first beam of photons that intercepts the surface of a sample at a first location on the sample and the first photon detector or detector array being configured to detect photons that are emitted from the first location; and a second photon source and a second photon detector or detector array, the second photon source being configured to emit a second beam of photons that intercepts the surface of the sample at a second location on the sample, the second location being spaced apart from the first location, and the second photon detector or detector array being configured to detect photons that are emitted from the second location.

A method is provided for characterizing a sample, by estimating a plurality of characteristic thicknesses, each being associated with a calibration material. The method includes acquiring an energy spectrum transmitted through the sample, located in an X and/or gamma spectral band; for each spectrum of a plurality of calibration spectra, calculating a likelihood from said calibration spectrum, and from the spectrum transmitted through the sample, each calibration spectrum corresponding to the energy spectrum transmitted through a stack of gauge blocks, each formed of a known thickness of a calibration material; and estimating the characteristic thicknesses associated with the sample according to the criterion of maximum likelihood.

A x-ray micro tomography system provides the ability to proscriptively determine regularization parameters for iterative reconstruction of a sample, from projection data of the sample. This allows a less experienced operator to determine the regularization parameters with adequate precision.

A system and method for producing period-coded glass containers is disclosed. One method comprises producing a glass container from a traceable material composition associated with a predetermined time period, manufacturing facility, and/or time of container manufacture, where the glass container is configured to be analyzed for the traceable material composition, and at least one of constituents of or amounts of materials in the traceable material composition is configured to be identified and cross-referenced to a cross-reference schedule for identifying the time period, manufacturing facility, and/or time of container manufacture in which the glass container was produced.

Disclosed is an electronic system for resetting the voltage of a charge-sensitive pre-amplifier having input from an X-ray detector and output to an ADC. The pre-amplifier gain is increased so that the RMS ADC noise is less than 1% of a representative digitized X-ray signal. The reset logic is configured to avoid loss of X-ray counts and to prevent the pre-amplifier output being outside the allowable input range of the ADC. Reset is initiated when the pre-amplifier output rises above an upper level, which is below the maximum allowable ADC input. Reset is also initiated when a pile-up event is detected, provided that such reset will not cause the pre-amplifier output to fall below the minimum allowable ADC input. At each reset a known amount of charge is removed from the pre-amplifier, and the reset time is continuously adjusted to ensure that the charge amount does not drift.

A method for quantitatively characterizing a dendrite segregation and dendrite spacing of a high-temperature alloy ingot is disclosed. The method includes preparation and surface treatment of the high-temperature alloy ingot, selection of calibration sample and determination of an element content, establishment of quantitative method for elements in micro-beam X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, quantitative distribution analysis of element components of the high-temperature alloy, quantitative characterization of characteristic element line distribution of high-temperature alloy, and analysis of a characteristic element line distribution map and statistics of a secondary dendrite spacing.

A system for high-resolution high-contrast x-ray ghost diffraction comprises: A) a laboratory x-ray source configured to provide an input beam; B) a diffuser configured to induce intensity fluctuations in the input beam; C) a beam splitter configured to split the input beam into: i) a test arm comprising an object and a single-pixel detector; and ii) a reference arm comprising one of: (a) a multi-pixel detector and (b) a single-pixel detector and an aperture or a scanning slit configured to simulate a one or two dimensional multi-pixel detector; and D) a processor configured to receive output intensity measurements of the detectors in the test arm and the reference arm, to record the output intensity measurements at different rotational positions of the rotating diffuser, to correlate the output intensity measurements, and to use the correlated output measurements to reconstruct a diffraction pattern of the object; wherein the object is placed as close as possible to the beam splitter and the detectors in the test arm and the reference arm are equidistant from the beam splitter.

The present disclosure relates to fabrication and use of a phase-contrast imaging detector that includes sub-pixel resolution electrodes or photodiodes spaced to correspond to a phase-contrast interference pattern. A system using such a detector may employ fewer gratings than are typically used in a phase-contrast imaging system, with certain functionality typically provided by a detector-side analyzer grating being performed by sub-pixel resolution structures (e.g., electrodes or photodiodes) of the detector. Measurements acquired using the detector may be used to determine offset, amplitude, and phase of a phase-contrast interference pattern without multiple acquisitions at different phase steps.

An X-ray detector module includes a plurality of evaluation circuits, coupled to at least one converter circuit, each evaluation circuit including a multiplicity of pixel electronics circuits for processing the electrical signals from the converter circuit pixel by pixel; and a number of forwarding circuits, a forwarding circuit including at least a first data input for receiving a measured data set from a first evaluation circuit and at least a second data input for receiving a measured data set from a second evaluation circuit, or for receiving at least one forwarded measured data set from a further forwarding circuit of the number of forwarding circuits. Each forwarding circuit is constructed to forward the measured data sets that are received by way of the first data input and second data input to a coupled receiving circuit over a common data output.

A sequential X-ray fluorescence spectrometer according to the present invention includes a total analysis time display unit configured to measure, for each kind of analytical sample, a standard sample which contains a component at a known content as a standard value to determine a measured intensity of each measurement line corresponding to the component. The total analysis time display unit is further configured to calculate, for each component, a counting time which gives a specified analytical precision by using the standard value and the measured intensity and to calculate a total counting time as a sum of the counting times of respective components. The total analysis time display unit is configured to calculate a total analysis time as a sum of the total counting time and a total non-counting time and to output the calculated total analysis time and the calculated counting times of the respective components.