System and method for x-ray fluorescence spectrometry of unknown samples

A computer program product for determining a composition of an unknown sample based on X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, the computer program comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer-readable instructions that, when loaded into a memory of a computing device and executed by at least one processor of the computing device, cause the computing device to:

• receive, in parallel, from an EDX channel, an initial energy dispersive spectrum of the sample obtained by an initial EDX measurement, wherein the initial energy dispersive spectrum includes fluorescence contributions and scattering contributions of said sample, and, from a WDX channel, one or more points of an initial wavelength dispersive spectrum of the sample obtained by an initial set of WDX measurements by, wherein the one or more points are points of interest for any sample;
• before receiving a final point of the initial wavelength dispersive spectrum, determine a sample class of the unknown sample by feeding the initial energy dispersive spectrum as input to a first pretrained classifier being trained to provide sample classes from respective EDX spectra, and deriving one or more expected elements associated with the determined sample class;
• retrieve optimized WDX measurement conditions associated with the expected elements associated with the determined sample class, and providing the optimized WDX measurement conditions to the WDX channel;
• receive, from the WDX channel, one or more points of a further wavelength dispersive spectrum obtained by using the optimized WDX measurement conditions with a focus on the one or more expected elements associated with the determined sample class;
• and
• determine the composition of said sample by using the points measured via the WDX channel.

A computing device adapted for determining a composition of an unknown sample based on X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, comprising:

• an interface adapted to receive, in parallel, from an EDX channel, an initial energy dispersive spectrum of the sample obtained by an initial EDX measurement, wherein the initial energy dispersive spectrum includes fluorescence contributions and scattering contributions of said sample, and, from a WDX channel, one or more points of an initial wavelength dispersive spectrum of the sample obtained by an initial set of WDX measurements by, wherein the one or more points are points of interest for any sample;
• a first pretrained classifier being trained to provide sample classes from respective EDX spectra, the first classifier adapted to determine, based on the initial energy dispersive spectrum as input, a sample class of the unknown sample before a final point of the initial wavelength dispersive spectrum is received;
• a WDX measurement condition retrieval module adapted to derive one or more expected elements associated with the determined sample class, and to retrieve optimized WDX measurement conditions associated with the expected elements associated with the determined sample class, and to provide the optimized WDX measurement conditions to the WDX channel via said interface;
• the interface further adapted to receive, from the WDX channel, one or more points of a further wavelength dispersive spectrum obtained by using the optimized WDX measurement conditions with a focus on the one or more expected elements associated with the determined sample class;
• and
• a composition module adapted to determine the composition of said sample by using the points measured via the WDX channel.