Search

Analysis of chemical nature and electronic structure at the interface of a thin film medium is important in many technological applications as well as to understand overall efficiency of a thin film device. Synchrotron radiation based x-ray spectroscopy is a promising technique to study interface nature of the nanomaterials with atomic resolutions. A combined x-ray reflectivity and grazing incidence x-ray fluorescence measurement facility has been recently constructed at the BL-16 microfocus beamline of Indus-2 synchrotron facility to accomplish surface-interface microstructural characterization of thin layered materials. It is also possible to analyze contaminates or adsorbed adatoms on the surface of the thin nanostructure materials. The BL-16 beamline also provides an attractive platform to perform a variety of analytical research activities especially in the field of micro x-ray fluorescence and ultra-trace elements analysis using Synchrotron radiation. We describe various salient features of the BL-16 reflectometer experimental station and the detailed description of its capabilities through the measured results, obtained for various thin layered nanomaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nanostructures of Titanium oxide (TiO2) are being studied for many promising applications, e.g., solar photovoltaics, solar water splitting for H2 fuel generation etc., due to their excellent photo-catalytic properties. We have synthesized low-dimensional TiO2 nanoparticles by gas phase CW CO2 laser pyrolysis. The laser synthesis process has been optimized for the deposition of highly pure, nearly mono-dispersed TiO2 nanoparticles on silicon substrates. Hard x-ray standing wave-field (XSW) measurements in total reflection geometry were carried out on the BL-16 beamline of Indus-2 synchrotron radiation facility in combination with x-ray reflectivity and grazing incidence x-ray fluorescence measurements for the determination of surface morphology of the deposited TiO2 nanostructures. The average particle size of TiO2 nanostructure estimated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was found to closely agree with the XSW and grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry is a powerful non-destructive technique for elemental analysis of materials at bulk and trace concentration levels. Taking into consideration several advantages of the synchrotron based XRF technique and to fulfill the requirements of Indian universities users we have setup a microfocus XRF beamline (BL-16) on Indus-2 synchrotron light source. The beamline offers a wide range of usages - both from research laboratories and industries; and for researchers working in diverse fields. A brief overview of the measured performance of the beamline, design specifications including various attractive features and recent research activities carried out on the BL-16 beamline are presented [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Compton and elastic scattering radiations are the major contributor to the spectral background of an x-ray fluorescence spectrum, which eventually limits the element detection sensitivities of the technique to μg/g (ppm) range. In the present work, we provide a detail mathematical descriptions and show that how polarization properties of the synchrotron radiation influence the spectral background in the x-ray fluorescence technique. We demonstrate our theoretical understandings through experimental observations using total x-ray fluorescence measurements on standard reference materials. Interestingly, the azimuthal anisotropy of the scattered radiation is shown to have a vital role on the significance of the x-ray fluorescence detection sensitivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determination of ultra trace elements is important in many disciplines both in basic and applied sciences. Numerous applications show their importance in medical science, environmental science, materials science, food processing and semiconductor industries and in maintaining the quality control of ultra pure chemicals and reagents. We report commissioning of a synchrotron based total reflection x-ray fluorescence (TXRF) facility on the BL-16 microfocus beamline of Indus-2. This paper describes the performance of the BL-16 TXRF spectrometer and the detailed description of its capabilities through examples of measured results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report commissioning of the microprobe-XRF beamline on Indus-2 synchrotron source. The beamline has been recently made operational and is now open for the user's experiments. The beamline comprises of Si(111) double crystal monochromator and Kirkpatrick-Baez focusing optics. The beamline covers wide photon energy range of 4 - 20 keV using both collimated and micro-focused beam modes. The design details and the first commissioning results obtained using this beamline are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]