Study of the Elemental Distribution in Ancient Chinese Porcelain Using Synchrotron Radiation X-ray Fluorescence

Abstract

In this paper, the scanning results of the elemental distribution of an ancient porcelain potsherd in a 200× 200μm2 area with a 20×20μm2 micro X-ray spot were obtained by synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence microprobe technique. The elemental distribution of the same porcelain potsherd in the different areas was also measured by using different spots from 100×100μm2 to 2×6mm2 respectively. The X-ray spot size, the number of measured point and the associated angular distribution of intensity of synchrotron X-ray were carefully investigated in order to find a suitable spot size by which the average elemental distribution of a few measured points can represent the elemental distribution of a whole porcelain ware.