The Irkutsk school of X-ray spectrochemical analysis

Abstract

1 In early 1930s, at East Siberian University in the city of Irkutsk (now Irkutsk State University), an X-ray laboratory was founded at which both professors and students were actively engaged in X-ray phase analysis and students were trained in X-ray physics. During the same period, instruments for X-ray structural analysis of minerals were installed at the Irkutsk Research Institute of Rare and Nonferrous Metals (Irgiredmet); the organization of a school of X-ray spectrochemical analysis in Irkutsk was therefore expected. It was organized and headed by Nikolai Fomich Losev, a graduate of the Department of Physics at Rostov State University (RSU).Losev was born into a family of rural teachers on December 6, 1927, in the town of Bazki, in the Veshensk district of Rostov-on-Don oblast. After graduating from Rostov State University in 1951, Losev, a student of Professor M.A. Blokhin, began his work at the Irgiredmet Physical Laboratory. He worked there for 13 years. For Losev, these were years of social and professional growth. He was an Irgiredmet Komsomol leader and Communist Party secretary. In 1960, Losev became a candidate of sciences in physics and mathematics. It was then, in the early 1960s, that a school of X-ray spectrochemical analysis grew up around Losev. The staff of the school was composed of graduates from the Department of Physics of Irkutsk State University, where Professor Losev had delivered a corresponding lecture course. Losev's first disciples (in chronological order) were A.N. Smagunova, G.V. Pavlinskii, V.P. Afonin, and T.N. Gunicheva; they all later became doctors of sciences.In 1967 Losev was appointed Dean of Irkutsk State University. Losev's years as dean saw his professional and organizational talents blossom. In 1968, he defended his doctoral dissertation in physics and mathematics at Rostov State University, and became the youngest doctor of sciences at Irkutsk University. Headed by Professor Losev, Irkutsk State University evolved much more rapidly than most other Russian universities. It is still commonly believed that Losev (3) at the Institute of Geochemistry of the Siberian Division of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR;(4) At the Irgiredmet Physical Laboratory.Research was done along the following lines:(1) Developing the theoretical foundations of X-ray spectrochemical analysis (studying the processes that give rise to primary and secondary X-ray spectra);(2) Developing the methodological foundations for studying the sources of errors in the results of X-ray fluorescence analysis and electron probe X-ray microanalysis (EPMA), and seeking methods for their inclusion or elimination;(3) Introducing the results of the research into practice;(4) The methodology of analytical control. The results of these investigations made a significant contribution to the development of X-ray spectrochemical analysis.At the time the school was established, the theory of the excitation of X-ray fluorescence spectra was based on a monochromatic model, even though under real conditions spectra are ...