PIXE Group

Our work is based upon the Pelletron accelerator, which provides proton beams up to 3 MeV energy. It supports two PIXE beamlines, whose purpose is non-destructive analysis of materials. One beamline is for conventional PIXE analysis and the other supports a nuclear microprobe, enabling micro-PIXE with spatial resolution at the 1 micron level.  

Our activities include:

• Development of the PIXE technique for elemental analysis. In earlier times our emphasis was on applications in rural and urban aerosols, extractive geochemistry and mineralogy, fish otolith microchemistry, and materials science. Now the development focus is on analytical accuracy and integration with other ion beam methods and the application  focus is on Martian rocks and terrestrial emulants.
• Research in the area of inner-shell atomic physics and fundamental parameters that provides the database for PIXE; the present focus is on multiple ionization satellites 
• Development of the GUPIXWIN software package, which has been supplied by us to 180 labs in 51 countries 
• Development of the new GUMAP software which facilitates use of GUPIXWIN in quantitative interpretation of 2D micro-PIXE maps from proton microprobes 
• Participation in the Mars Science Laboratory mission; our contributions are largely based on  our GUAPX code for processing the combined PIXE+XRF spectra from the Curiosity rover. We also developed a new photon scatter method for in situ determination of water content of Martian samples using spectra from the Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers 
• Provision of PIXE and micro-PIXE analysis and imaging to collaborators and clients 
• Presenting at various conferences - a list of recent conference contributions by GPG members and collaborators is available. 

People

Contact Us:

J.L. Campbell
Department of Physics
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario, Canada
N1G 2W1
email: icampbel@uoguelph.ca
Phone: +1 (519) 824-4120 x52325