Analysis of thin intermediate layers by confocal micro-XRF

ROBERTO PÉREZ; HÉCTOR JORGE SÁNCHEZ; MARCELO RUBIO; CARLOS PÉREZ

X-RAY SPECTROMETRY

JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD

Año: 2011 vol. 40 p. 19 - 23

0049-8246

Recently, the capabilities of the micro-X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (-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 homogeneous 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 the present work we apply a new quantification algorithm for confocal -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 fluorescent radiation cannot be approximated. The analytical expressions involved in the proposed quantification algorithm for confocal -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 -XRF.