Alpha-induced coulomb excitation for the determination of vanadium and molybdenum in steels

A simple, rapid and non-destructive method for the determination of vanadium and molybdenum in steels is described. The method uses prompt spectrometry of the gammarays obtained from coulomb excitation with 5 MeV alpha particle beams. Using the 320 KeV gamma-ray, 3.3% precision was obtained for vanadium analysis. The precision for molybdenum was 3.2% and 5.3% using the gamma-rays of 204 and 536 keV, respectively. The extent of interference from other elements is discussed.