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SANDRA: a portable XRF system for the study of Mexican cultural heritage
Author(s) -
Ruvalcaba Sil J. L.,
Ramírez Miranda D.,
Aguilar Melo V.,
Picazo F.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
x‐ray spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.447
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1097-4539
pISSN - 0049-8246
DOI - 10.1002/xrs.1257
Subject(s) - cultural heritage , x ray fluorescence , detector , characterization (materials science) , archaeology , art , engineering , physics , optics , history , fluorescence
This work presents the portable X‐ray system SANDRA (Sistema de Analisis No Destructivo por RAyos X or System for Non Destructive Analysis using X‐rays) developed at the Physics Institute of the UNAM, Mexico, for the study of Mexican cultural heritage collections. The X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) SANDRA device can use 75 W Mo, Rh and W X‐ray tubes and Amptek Si‐PIN and Cd‐Te detectors that are selected and combined depending on the elemental range detection requirements and the specific problem to be studied. In this paper, a full description and characterization of this system, sensitivities for the X‐ray tubes and detectors as well as the detection limits are discussed. Examples of applications to technological studies on pre‐Columbian metallic artifacts and analysis of color materials of ancient Mexican codex are shown. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.