SORTING PIECES OF MATERIAL BASED ON OPTICAL AND X - RAY PHOTON EMISSIONS

摘要

A piece of material that includes low-Z elements is classified and sorted based on photon emissions detected from the piece of material. Both XRF spectroscopy and OES techniques, for example, Laser- Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and spark discharge spectroscopy, are used to classify the piece of material. A stream of pieces of material are moved along a conveying system into a stimulation and detection area. Each piece of material, in turn, is stimulated with a first and second stimulus, of a same or different type, causing the piece of material to emit photons, which include x-ray photons (i.e., x-rays) and optical emissions.