Elemental Composition of Multilayers
X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) provides rapid, accurate, and non-destructive elemental analysis and measures film thickness and composition ranges up to several micrometers. XRF is an effective method for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of material composition. XRF is widely used for applications as diverse as metallurgy, forensics, archaeology, environmental analysis, geology and mining, polymers, and electronics.
When primary X-rays strike an atom, they eject an electron from one of the orbitals surrounding the nucleus. This creates a vacancy, leaving the atom in a high-energy, unstable state. To restore stability, an electron from a higher-energy orbital fills the vacancy. Since this new position is at a lower energy level, the excess energy is released as fluorescent X-rays. The energy difference between the ejected electron and the one that replaces it is unique to the element, making the emitted fluorescent X-ray's energy specific to the element being analyzed. This is what enables X-ray fluorescence (XRF) to determine the elemental composition of a sample.
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