The toolbox for material characterization has never been richer than today.
Great progress with all kinds of particles and interaction methods provide
access to nearly all properties of an object under study. However, a
tomographic analysis of the subsurface region remains still a challenge today.
In this regard, the Muon-Induced X-ray Emission (MIXE) technique has seen
rebirth fueled by the availability of high intensity muon beams. We report here
a study conducted at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). It demonstrates that
the absence of any beam time-structure leads to low pile-up events and a high
signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with less than one hour acquisition time per sample
or data point. This performance creates the perspective to open this technique
to a wider audience for the routine investigation of non-destructive and
depth-sensitive elemental compositions, for example in rare and precious
samples. Using a hetero-structured sample of known elements and thicknesses, we
successfully detected the characteristic muonic X-rays, emitted during the
capture of a negative muon by an atom, and the gamma-rays resulting from the
nuclear capture of the muon, characterizing the capabilities of MIXE at PSI.
This sample emphasizes the quality of a continuous beam, and the exceptional
SNR at high rates. Such sensitivity will enable totally new statistically
intense aspects in the field of MIXE, e.g. elemental 3D-tomography and chemical
analysis. Therefore, we are currently advancing our proof-of-concept
experiments with the goal of creating a full fledged permanently operated user
station to make MIXE available to the wider scientific community as well as
industry
