Long-term accuracy and precision of PIXE and PIGE measurements for thin and thick sample analyses

This paper describes PIXE/PIGE measurements on thin Micromatter Standard (±5%) foils run over a period of 10 years. The selected foils were typically 50 μg/cm2 thick and covered the commonly used PIXE X-ray energy range 1.4-20 keV and the light elements F and Na for PIGE studies. For the thousands of thick obsidian and pottery samples analysed over a 6-year period, the Ohio Red Clay standard has been used for both PIXE and PIGE calibration of a range of elements from Li to Rb. For PIXE, the long-term accuracy could be as low as ±1.6% for major elements with precision ranging from ±5% to ±10% depending on the elemental concentration. For PIGE, accuracies were around ±5% with precision ranging from ±5% in thick samples to ±15% in thin samples or for low yield γ-ray production