Where on earth
do you get ahold of "off the shelf" x-ray generators?

I *want* some.
(Scritty Bakerman., Wed 26 Aug 2009, 19:08, 2 replies)

Off a shelf
somewhere?
(Sir Tainley Barking Ezekiel 23:20, Wed 26 Aug 2009, 20:18, closed)

I read that phrase
without batting an eyelid. X-rays are simple to generate, at least on a basic level. All you need is a source of high energy electrons and something to bash them into, such as a piece of metal.

You can use a reasonably simple vacuum tube to do it.

In practice, you'd actually use some sort of particle accelerator to generate x-rays, and you can buy 'table top' versions of them too!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 9:29, closed)

K2K6
is, as ever, correct.

You need a high voltage box, which are easy to get hold of, a source of electrons (think the tungsten filament of a light bulb), a target, such as copper, which you bombard with the electrons, ultimately leading to x-ray generation, in our case, as a copper K alpha line. It's deceptively simple and there are specialist companies that will sell you the required kit (for a huge cost) which you then custom buid your optics, detectors and sample chambers into, depending on what it is you're trying to measure.

Or you can use a particle accelerator. But that doesn't tend to fit on the bench quite as snugly.
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Thu 27 Aug 2009, 10:56, closed)