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X‐ray fluorescence analysis for oxygen on and in materials
Author(s) -
Musket R. G.
Publication year - 1990
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.1300190407
Subject(s) - beryllium , tantalum , sputtering , materials science , analytical chemistry (journal) , silicon , oxygen , x ray fluorescence , fluorescence , x ray , chemistry , thin film , optics , optoelectronics , nanotechnology , metallurgy , physics , organic chemistry , chromatography
Quantitative analysis for oxygen on the surface and in the bulk of materials has been demonstrated using an energy‐dispersive x‐ray fluorescence system. The system consists of an Al K x‐ray source, an ultra‐thin‐windowed Si(Li) detector and an ion gun for sputter cleaning. Sputter cleaning was required to distinguish between surface and bulk O K x‐ray signals. Since beryllium has one of the lowest mass absorption coefficients for O K x‐rays, calculations and extensive measurements were made for oxygen on and in beryllium. The 3‐α detection limits were 0.22 nm of BeO on beryllium and 98 atomic parts per million (appm) of oxygen in beryllium. Measurements of surface oxides on other materials indicated detection limits of 1.9 nm of SiO 2 on silicon and 2.0 nm of Ta 2 O 5 on tantalum. The corresponding detection limits for oxygen in silicon and tantalum were 0.39 and 4.3 at.‐%, respectively.