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Analysis of thin intermediate layers by confocal µ‐XRF
Author(s) -
Perez Roberto D.,
Sánchez Héctor J.,
Rubio Marcelo,
Perez Carlos A.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
x‐ray spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.447
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1097-4539
pISSN - 0049-8246
DOI - 10.1002/xrs.1277
Subject(s) - confocal , thin layers , x ray fluorescence , materials science , optics , substrate (aquarium) , volume (thermodynamics) , fluorescence spectrometry , analytical chemistry (journal) , fluorescence , chemistry , physics , chromatography , geology , oceanography , quantum mechanics , composite material
Recently, the capabilities of the micro‐X‐ray fluorescence spectroscopy (µ‐XRF) were expanded by means of a confocal geometry. It consists of X‐ray lenses in the excitation as well as in the detection channel which defines a small probing volume. By moving an intermediate thin homogenous layer in the normal direction through this probing volume, information concerning the thickness and elemental composition can be obtained. For multilayer samples the order of the layers in the stratified structure can be obtained. In this work, we apply a new quantification algorithm for confocal µ‐XRF which can be useful in surface analysis. It is an iterative procedure valid for thin intermediate layers where the exponential attenuation of the X‐ray beams cannot be approximated. The analytical expressions involved in the proposed quantification algorithm for confocal µ‐XRF were adapted from those used for quantification of intermediate thin layers by means of conventional XRF. In this way, some of the analytical processes applied in conventional XRF can be adapted to confocal µ‐XRF. The new algorithm was applied to analyze by confocal µ‐XRF a sample of a paint layer on a glass substrate. To test the precision of the proposed algorithm, the present results were compared with conventional XRF analysis. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.