Recent MXRF reports have demonstrated marked x-ray flux enhancements over traditional aperturecollimating systems when using a total reflection capillary optic. In the present work, several standard reference materials (SRMs) were examined with a Kevex Omicron MXRF system to compare the elemental sensitivities achieved with an aperture x-ray guide to those obtained with a monolithic polycapillary optic (X-ray Optical Systems). This study is relevant to the MXRF community using commercial aperture-based instruments where trace elemental concentrations in a sample sometimes mandate the need for a higher primary x-ray dose, but the flexibility of incorporating various sized apertures for other samples is still maintained.

By scanning the x-ray beam over a nickel/gold knife edge, the capillary focal spot diameter at the time of this work was determined to be ∼400 μm, while a 300 μm aperture provided a beam size of ∼550 μm due to beam divergence past the aperture.