Rigaku: Leading with Innovation X-ray Diffraction & Elemental Analysis
The Bridge
SmartLab® Guidance™
SmartLab Guidance
Intelligent software that determines which optical units are best for an application, and performs automatic alignment, setup and measurement. Guidance delivers a completely automated measurement sequence.
The Guidance package, based on built-in expertise, suggests the optimal hardware configuration and settings for specific application measurements. The program will determine which optics are most appropriate for a given application, determine the instrument settings and execute the measurement, offering a completely automated measurement sequence. Since the SmartLab has built-in component recognition, Guidance will not only tell you how you should configure the SmartLab for a given measurement, it will also warn you if you have not configured it properly. Expert advice coupled with hardware that will confirm the correct configuration is the foundation of the SmartLab system. For more >
NEW CT Lab GX series
CT Lab
Computed tomography (CT) for materials science
Rigaku introduced an ultra-high-speed, high-resolution 3D X-ray micro CT imager into the industrial CT market on March 3, 2015. The new "CT Lab GX" incorporates the "Sample-Stationary Method" and achieves CT scan in 8 seconds at top speed and minimum resolution of 4.5 μm. For more >
NEX QC+ QuantEZ™
NEX QC+ QuantEZ
High resolution elemental analysis of Na through U
As a premium low cost benchtop Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) elemental analyzer, the Rigaku NEX QC+ QuantEZ delivers wide elemental coverage with an easy-to-learn Windows®-based QuantEZ software. Non-destructively analyze from sodium (Na) through uranium (U) in almost any matrix, from solids and alloys to powders, liquids and slurries. For more >
Conferences and Workshops
PITTCON in New Orleans
Join Rigaku
at future meetings
Rigaku will be sponsoring, attending or exhibiting at the following conferences and trade shows:

2015 MRS Spring
Meeting & Exhibit

San Francisco, CA, USA
April 6 – 10, 2015

Advances in Process Analytics and Control Technology (APACT)
Manchester, United Kingdom
April 22 – 24, 2015

ISRI 2015
Vancouver, Canada
April 21 – 25, 2015

XRF Spectrometry Short Course with Special Topical Workshops
London, Ontario, Canada
June 1 – 12, 2015

See the complete list >
Training Classes
MiniFlex Training Class
MiniFlex 600/PDXL
Training Class
A MiniFlex 600 training class was held at Rigaku’s facility in The Woodlands, TX, USA during the week of March 23rd. See complete list of Rigaku training courses >
Planning to Submit a Grant?
grants
Rigaku is happy to assist
If you are planning on submitting an instrument grant proposal, Rigaku will be happy to assist you. We can help you determine the correct instrument and configura­tion best suited for your analytical needs. Start the process >
Rigaku's Materials Analysis eNewsletter, The Bridge
Subscribe to The Bridge
Join us
Each month, Rigaku distributes two eNewsletters: The Bridge, which focuses on Materials Analysis, and Crystallography Times, which concentrates on life sciences. Register >
 

Welcome

With the passing of the recent March equinox, change is once again in the air. March equinox marks the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator. On the equinox, night and day are almost the same length, roughly 12 hours, throughout the world. The term "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night). Equinoxes are opposite on either side of the equator, so begins spring in the northern hemisphere and fall in the southern hemisphere.

For those of us in the northern regions, March equinox marks a time of renewal and rebirth. And this is true for The Bridge as well. Beginning with this issue, the eNewsletter format changes slightly to make it both more succinct and easier to read. In addition to the usual content, we have added "News Highlights of the Month" to the eMail and enhanced the content, eliminating the pop-up flip reader. Larger documents now are now directly linked as PDF files, for easy reading and printing. Enjoy the newsletter.

R.C. Tisdale, Ph.D. – Editor

Thin Film Training Textbook cover   Thin Film Training Textbook
High-resolution X-ray Diffraction Method (Part 15)
Rigaku Corporation

In general, for a multilayer film sample of a heteroepitaxial crystal, the lattice constants differ in the substrate and in the film. In such cases, X-rays behave as if the lattice is strained at the interface between the substrate and the film and between the layers in the film. To understand dynamical diffraction phenomena in multilayer films and interpret measurement results, we must apply the dynamical theory of diffraction in a strained crystal. Numerous theories have been proposed depending on the type of strain in question. For more >
Rigaku Journal cover   Featured Rigaku Journal Article
HyPix-3000: state-of-the-art HPAD 2-D detector for laboratory XRD
Application Laboratory, Rigaku Corporation

The HyPix-3000 is a next-generation two-dimensional hybrid pixel array detector designed specifically for the home lab diffractometer. It has a 3,000 mm2 surface area with 100 μm pixel resolution. It is a single photon counting detector with a high count rate of more than 106 cps/pixel. The detector can be switched between 2-D, 1-D and 0-D seamlessly to support from powder diffraction to high-resolution XRD to 2-D stress and texture. For more >
raw material for glass   WDXRF Application Note
Semi-quantitative Analysis of Glass Raw Material with Supermini200
Rigaku Corporation

Since glass is a unique material in that it has both the properties of being physically hard and optically transparent, it is used in an extremely wide range of application from products used in daily life to high-tech fields such as aerospace development. The major component of glass is silica (SiO2), and other components contained in glass can directly impact its characteristics. For example, Na2O can lower glasses' softening temperature, but excessive amount can deteriorate its physical and chemical durability. The amount of ferric oxide (Fe2O3) often times contained in the raw glass material can have undesirable effects on the color and clarity. It is therefore important to carefully control the contents of both major and minor components of the raw glass material in the manufacturing process to attain the desired characteristics in the fin-ished glass product. For more >
glass analysis - window   EDXRF Application Note
Analysis of Glass & Raw Materials
Applied Rigaku Technologies

Soda-lime glass makes up 90% of the global glass production and is used to make windows, glassware and bottles. Common raw materials include sodium carbonate (soda), calcium carbonate (limestone), calcium oxide (lime), dolomite, alumina, slags and sand (SiO2). Raw materials must be screened and mixed properly to give the desired glass properties for the finished products. Metal oxides such as CrO3 and Fe2O3 impart color to the glass, and so must also be closely monitored during production. Final glass composition is then monitored to ensure the highest quality product. Rigaku NEX CG meets these measurements needs in a simple to use benchtop system, ideally designed for the at-line non-technical QC technician and the advanced technical user alike. For more >
Professor Daren J. Timmons   Customers in the Spotlight
Virginia Military Institute, XtaLAB mini benchtop single crystal X-ray system

VMI (Virginia Military Institute), located in Lexington, VA, is one of only a few public colleges in the US that provides a broad liberal arts education within a military framework. All of the approximately 1700 cadets live in the VMI barracks, assemble for breakfast at 7AM, attend academic and military classes from 8AM to 4PM, and then receive sports or military training until 7PM. Cadets choose from among fourteen disciplines, including the sciences, engineering and liberal arts, and many conduct undergraduate research projects alongside their major professor. For more >
book cover   Scientific Book Review
Most Wanted Particle: The Inside Story of the Hunt for the Higgs, the Heart of the Future of Physics
By Jon Butterworth, The Experiment, LLC, New York, 2014.
ISBN 978-1-61519-246-5.


Jon Butterworth's Most Wanted Particle is an often very funny first-person account of his involvement in the experimental confirmation of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland in 2012. Dr. Butterworth was involved in developing algorithms to analyze the "jets" of particles that are produced in the proton-proton (or other) collisions and how their properties can provide indirect evidence for short-lived and massive bosons. For more >
Bragg's Law   Material Analysis in the News
News for March 2015

March 3, 2015. Working with a powerful microfocused X-ray beam at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS), researchers applied Laue X-ray microdiffraction, a technique commonly used to map stresses in electronic chips and other microscopic materials, to study a rock sample extracted from the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). The results could one day lead to a better understanding of earthquake events.

March 15, 2015. Scientists at Forschungszentrum Jülich (the Jülich research centre) and colleagues at other centres have worked out a set of criteria, based on X-ray diffraction, that should allow them and others to target substrates for the two-dimensional all-carbon material graphene for which the intriguing material's optical and electronic properties are preserved.

March 15, 2015. "Red lead" is familiar as a component of the orange-red rustproof paint used on boats and other areas exposed to the sea and the weather. It has also been used by countless artists through the centuries. Unfortunately, the pigment undergoes discoloration over time. Now, Belgian researchers at DESY have used X-ray diffraction mapping and tomography with synchrotron light source PETRA III to help them explain a new step in the discoloration process.

March 18, 2015. Science writer Jennifer Ouellette explores the used of various X-ray analytical techniques in the art world.

March 23, 2015. The research group of Prof. Tomislav Frišcic in McGill's Department of Chemistry has made a name for itself in the little-known, but growing field of "mechanochemistry," in which chemical transformations are produced by milling, grinding or shearing solid-state ingredients. Their latest work involves in situ X-ray diffraction monitoring of a mechanochemical reaction reveals a unique topology metal-organic framework.

periodic table background w/ test tubes   Recent Scientific Papers of Interest
Papers for March 2015

Recent Scientific Papers of Interest is a monthly compilation of material analysis papers appearing in recently released journals and publications. See below

Structural phase transition of ternary dielectric SmGdO3: Evidence from angle dispersive x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopic studies. Sharma, Yogesh; Sahoo, Satyaprakash; Mishra, A. K.; Misra, Pankaj; Pavunny, Shojan P.; Dwivedi, Abhilash; Sharma, S. M.; Katiyar, Ram S. Journal of Applied Physics. 2015, Vol. 117 Issue 9, p094101-1-094101-5. 5p. 1 Chart, 4 Graphs. DOI: 10.1063/1.4913776.

Challenges in rapid soil quality assessment and opportunities presented by multivariate chemometric energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence and scattering spectroscopy. Kaniu, M.I.; Angeyo, K.H. Geoderma. Mar2015, Vol. 241, p32-40. 9p. DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2014.10.014.

New X-ray insight into oxygen intercalation in epitaxial graphene grown on 4H-SiC(0001). Kowalski, G.; Tokarczyk, M.; Dąbrowski, P.; Ciepielewski, P.; Możdżonek, M.; Strupiński, W.; Baranowski, J. M. Journal of Applied Physics. 2015, Vol. 117 Issue 10, p105301-1-105301-9. 9p. DOI: 10.1063/1.4914161.

Determination of low levels of retained austenite in low-carbon high-manganese steel using X-ray diffraction. Carvalho Ferreira, Helder; Jose Martins Boratto, Francisco; Tadeu Lopes Buono, Vicente. Materials Science & Engineering: A. Mar2015, Vol. 628, p110-115. 6p. DOI: 10.1016/j.msea.2015.01.019.

Quantification of febuxostat polymorphs using powder X-ray diffraction technique. Qiu, Jing-bo; Li, Gang; Sheng, Yue; Zhu, Mu-rong. Journal of Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Analysis. Mar2015, Vol. 107, p298-303. 6p. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpba.2015.01.005.

X-ray diffraction studies of charge density waves in cuprate superconductors: A brief review. Blackburn, E. Physica B. Mar2015, Vol. 460, p132-135. 4p. DOI: 10.1016/j.physb.2014.11.055.

In-situ X-ray diffraction analysis of zirconia layer formed on zirconium alloys oxidized at high temperature. Gosset, D.; Le Saux, M. Journal of Nuclear Materials. Mar2015, Vol. 458, p245-252. 8p. DOI: 10.1016/j.jnucmat.2014.12.067.

Combined small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering studies on oxide-supported Pt nanoparticles prepared by a CVS and CVD process. Guo, Xiaoai; Gao, Kun; Gutsche, Alexander; Seipenbusch, Martin; Nirschl, Hermann. Powder Technology. Mar2015, Vol. 272, p23-33. 11p. DOI: 10.1016/j.powtec.2014.11.028.

Speciation of inorganic arsenic in drinking water by wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry after in situ preconcentration with miniature solid-phase extraction disks. Hagiwara, Kenta; Inui, Tetsuo; Koike, Yuya; Aizawa, Mamoru; Nakamura, Toshihiro. Talanta. Mar2015, Vol. 134, p739-744. 6p. DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2014.12.027.

Optimized and validated wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (WDXRF) method for the determination of uranium in phosphogypsum. Guitouni, Mohamed. Journal of Radioanalytical & Nuclear Chemistry. Mar2015, Vol. 303 Issue 3, p1649-1657. 9p. DOI: 10.1007/s10967-014-3741-6.

Application of high resolution X-ray computed tomography to mineral deposit origin, evaluation, and processing. Kyle, J. Richard; Ketcham, Richard A. Ore Geology Reviews. Mar2015:Part 4, Vol. 65, p821-839. 19p. DOI: 10.1016/j.oregeorev.2014.09.034.

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