Nondestructive Elemental Depth-Profiling Analysis by Muonic X-ray Measurement

Abstract

Elemental analysis of materials is fundamentally important to science and technology. Many elemental analysis methods have been developed, but three-dimensional nondestructive elemental analysis of bulk materials has remained elusive. Recently, our project team, dreamX (damageless and regioselective elemental analysis with muonic X-rays), developed a nondestructive depth-profiling elemental analysis method after a decade of research. This new method utilizes a new type of probe; a negative muon particle and high-energy muonic X-rays emitted after the muon stops in a material. We performed elemental depth profiling on an old Japanese gold coin (Tempo-Koban) using a low-momentum negative muon beam and successfully determined that the Au concentration in the coin gradually decreased with depth over a micrometer length scale. We believe that this method will be a promising tool for the elemental analysis of valuable samples, such as archeological artifacts.

Development of non-destructive isotopic analysis methods using muon beams and their application to the analysis of lead

“…Therefore, muonic X-rays have very high energies, and as a result, those generated in the interior of a substance can easily escape from the sample. The selected incident energy of the accelerated muon determines the stopping depth in the substance whereby three-dimensional muonic X-ray analysis of the resulting light elements is possible [13,14]. Non-destructive elemental analysis using this method has already been demonstrated for serval valuable samples (e.g., Ninomiya et al and Hampshire et al used this method to determine the internal elemental distribution in archaeological artefacts [14][15][16][17], and Terada et al succeeded in quantifying carbon contents in carbonaceous meteorites [13,18,19]).…”

Chemical Environmental Effect on Muon Capture Processes for Iron Compounds

“…A vacuum chamber made of aluminum was connected to the D2 beam line; the muon-irradiation samples were set in the center of the chamber [7]. We prepared two pellet samples for muon irradiation: K 3 2+ . Each compound has the identical structure around the iron atom; six ligands coordinate to iron atom from six directions to form an octahedron unit.…”

“…Consequently, high-energy characteristic muonic X-rays are emitted upon the formation of a muonic atom. In recent years, an elemental analysis method using muonic X-rays has been developing as a non-destructive elemental analysis method for valuable samples [1][2][3].…”

Detection of Li in Li-ion Battery Electrode Materials by Muonic X-ray

“…In particular, since J-PARC provides an intense negative muon beam with wide kinetic energy range from 65 keV to 54 MeV [2], the compositions of several samples were already determined by µXEA [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. We have therefore attempted to use µXEA for the observation of Li distribution in the Li-ion battery in J-PARC.…”