Fast identification of mineral inclusions in diamond at GSECARS using synchrotron X-ray microtomography, radiography and diffraction

Michelle D. Wenz*, Steven D. Jacobsen, Dongzhou Zhang, Margo Regier, Hannah J. Bausch, Przemyslaw K. Dera, Mark Rivers, Peter Eng, Steven B. Shirey, D. Graham Pearson

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Mineral inclusions in natural diamond are widely studied for the insight that they provide into the geochemistry and dynamics of the Earth's interior. A major challenge in achieving thorough yet high rates of analysis of mineral inclusions in diamond derives from the micrometre-scale of most inclusions, often requiring synchrotron radiation sources for diffraction. Centering microinclusions for diffraction with a highly focused synchrotron beam cannot be achieved optically because of the very high index of refraction of diamond. A fast, high-throughput method for identification of micromineral inclusions in diamond has been developed at the GeoSoilEnviro Center for Advanced Radiation Sources (GSECARS), Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, USA. Diamonds and their inclusions are imaged using synchrotron 3D computed X-ray microtomography on beamline 13-BM-D of GSECARS. The location of every inclusion is then pinpointed onto the coordinate system of the six-circle goniometer of the single-crystal diffractometer on beamline 13-BM-C. Because the bending magnet branch 13-BM is divided and delivered into 13-BM-C and 13-BM-D stations simultaneously, numerous diamonds can be examined during coordinated runs. The fast, high-throughput capability of the methodology is demonstrated by collecting 3D diffraction data on 53 diamond inclusions from Juína, Brazil, within a total of about 72 h of beam time.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1763-1768
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Synchrotron Radiation
Volume26
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2019

Funding

This study was supported in part through the US National Science Foundation (NSF) (grant No. EAR-1853521 to SDJ) and by the Capital/DOE Alliance Center (CDAC). DGP and SBS acknowledge support from the Deep Carbon Observatory (Sloan Foundation). This work was performed at GeoSoilEnviroCARS (GSECARS), The University of Chicago, at Sector 13 of the APS, Argonne National Laboratory. GSECARS is supported by the NSF (grant No. EAR-1634415) and US Department of Energy (DOE) (grant No. DE-FG02-94ER14466). Experiments at beamline 13-BM-C used the PX^2 facility, supported by COMPRES under NSF Cooperative Agreement (EAR-1661511). The APS is supported by the DOE and operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory (contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357).

Keywords

  • computed microtomography
  • diamond
  • microdiffraction
  • microinclusions
  • minerals
  • radiography

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Radiation
  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

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