Wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy of rare-earth elements in extraterrestrial material and deep-Earth diamonds enabled by

The aim of this proposal is to investigate the application of highly-curved HAPG analyzer crystals in WD-XRF spectroscopy for the simultaneous analysis of lanthanides in unique extraterrestrial materials and explore its 3D voxel scanning capabilities at low excitation energies. For this a novel analysis technique is proposed to obtain non-destructive, selective volume information of rare earth elements (REEs) in µm-sized analogues of coarse grain asteroid samples in preparation for the initial analysis of materials from asteroid sample return missions. The combination of cylindrical HAPG optics with ultra-high curvature having a mm-sized working distance is expected to provide higher throughput and collimation as compared to high energy resolution fluorescence detection (HERFD) spectroscopy.