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.
