Preface

      The discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen dates back to nearly 125 years. Despite their “age,” the research and discoveries that have been made in the past and today make X-rays one of the most powerful analytical tools available today. The discovery of this part of the electromagnetic spectrum has seen many applications. First, used for medical purposes by Röntgen himself, who found that the newly discovered rays can penetrate and at the same time can be absorbed by different types of matter. Therefore, it was now possible to image the human body. Later, Max von Laue showed that they are a higher-frequency part of the electromagnetic spectrum where natural light is also a part of. This led to his work on diffraction of X-rays, which to this day is used to investigate the crystalline and amorphous structure of solids. Finally, Moseley found that every element emitted characteristic X-ray radiation that can be used to determine the qualitative and quantitative elemental composition of materials of different types. This is the application that is most interesting for us – the spectroscopists.

      X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy has now developed into an analytical technique that, due to its robustness and flexibility, can be used in almost all scientific areas, in research, and above all in quality control in industrial production. The technique has become so powerful because of its ability to analyze many different material types, having a wide range of elements and concentrations. The sample preparation is mostly simple or even not required, therefore making it possible to fully automate the entire analysis process.

      Even when one has many years of experience with the method, specific expertise is still required to achieve reliable results, especially since the applications for X-ray fluorescence spectrometry have been significantly expanded in recent years due to new components being developed and becoming commercially available for X-ray spectrometers. Examples of such are X-ray optics, new types of detectors, and the availability of powerful computing technique and software solutions.

A combination of theoretical knowledge and practical know-how about