milliproben.
/ˈmɪlᵻprəʊb/, U.S. /ˈmɪləˌproʊb/ Science.
An instrument for analysing small amounts of material; spec. a form of spectrometer, used esp. to study delicate or valuable objects, in which a narrow beam of protons or other subatomic particles is directed at a specimen and the spectrum of the resulting fluorescence is analysed.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > atomic physics > decomposition of light, spectrum > study of spectra > [noun] > instrument used in
spectroscope1861
spectrometer1874
spectrophotometer1881
spectrograph1884
integrating spectroscope1898
X-ray spectrometer1914
milliprobe1963
1963 M. S. Banks & E. T. Hall in Archaeometry 6 31 Both Dr. E. T. Hall and W. J. Young suggested at the I. I. C. Rome Conference in 1961, that many of these difficulties could be overcome if one used a curved-crystal spectrometer arrangement. The Laboratory has put this idea into operation in designing its new X-ray spectrometer, the ‘Milliprobe’.
1970 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) A. 269 139 A new variation in emission spectrometry has been provided by the development of the ‘Laser milliprobe spectrometer’.
1987 Nature 16 July 195/2 Using a proton milliprobe, collimated to 1.0 mm × 0.5 mm (because the width of the lines on the map is of the order of 0.5 mm), Cahill and his team carried out 159 analyses of the parchment and ink of the map.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1963