Patent ID: 9535017
Date: 2017-01-03
CPC Classifications: G01N

Claim:
1. A method for characterizing a material comprising the steps: a. directing a first collimated beam of electromagnetic radiation, of energy greater than or equal to 1keV, towards a sample of the material to be characterized; b. acquiring a spectrum of a second beam of electromagnetic radiation, obtained by scattering of said first beam by an elementary volume of said sample through a predefined scattering angle θ; said steps a and b being repeated one or more times, each time modifying the lengths of the paths of the first and of the second beam inside of said material, while at the same time maintaining substantially constant their ratio ε together with said scattering angle θ; and c. estimating one or more properties characteristic of said material based on the spectra acquired during the repetitions in the step b; said step c being implemented by means of at least one multivariate model, and comprising a calculation, based on the spectra acquired during the repetitions of said b, of a combined linear extinction function μ′ of the material, defined as a weighted average of the linear extinction coefficients μ of the material for the electromagnetic radiation incident at an energy E wherein said step (c) also comprises: —a determination of a function Dμ′ representative of a comparison between values taken by said combined linear extinction function μ′ for values of energy having a constant difference dE; and —an estimation of a mass effective atomic number of said material based on the values of said function Dμ′ for a plurality of values of energy, by application of said at least one multivariate model.