In one embodiment, a portable apparatus adapted to be battery powered is
used to scan an object in situ with x-rays and measure the intensity of
the diffracted x-rays. The apparatus includes a scanning head having an
x-ray source that is battery powered and an x-ray detector. The x-ray
source and the x-ray detector are aligned in one of a plurality of
predetermined alignments such that x-rays from the x-ray source are
incident upon an object at a specific angle and the x-ray detector is
aligned to detect x-rays that are diffracted at a specific angle, wherein
the specific angle is a Bragg angle for a particular plane of atoms in the
object.
