ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Using Negative Muons to Profile Alloy Compositions of Early Scientific Instruments

Abstract: Early scientific instruments are typically made of latten, a quaternary copper alloy (Cu, Zn, Sn, Pb) with many trace elements depending on the source of the copper ores. Ongoing research into the history and development of the instruments requires profiles of these elements. Since the testing methods must be non-destructive, X-ray techniques have been used in the past (particularly X-ray fluorescence) but this suffers from only analysing the near surface region which is often modified by exposure to soil and atmosphere or by surface treatments such as chemical cleaning and polishing. Previous experiments with negative muons on text specimens and ancient coins have shown the potential of the method for elemental depth profiling. This experiment will extend and quantify the technique to a series of late medieval and early modern scientific instruments already studied by XRF.

Principal Investigator: Dr John Davis
Experimenter: Dr Adrian Hillier
Experimenter: Miss Bethany Hampshire

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1810878

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1810878

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr John Davis et al; (2018): Using Negative Muons to Profile Alloy Compositions of Early Scientific Instruments, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1810878

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.