Feasibility study of interfacial diffusion in layered thin films by depth profiling using X-ray microbeam and grazing-exit detection conditions

C. A. PÉREZ; A. L. GOBBI; H. J. SÁNCHEZ; E. AVENDANO

LNLS Activity Report

Año: 2008 vol. 2007 p. 1 - 2

1518-0204

Characterization techniques sensitive to the chemical andphysical properties of the material surface are of key importancein modern science and technology. The use of grazingincident(GI) condition, introduced in different x-ray researchfields, has enabled surface characterization of materials dueto the small penetration depth of x-rays under total reflectioncondition. Surface characterization techniques often need spatialresolution in order to be able to analyze their propertiesin different points. This is actually an intrinsic limitation ofthe GI excitation condition in which the collected informationnormally comes from a large area of the sample surface.Becker et al.[1] have pointed out that grazing-exit (GE) experimentsalso provides the same information as GI experiments,according to the optical reciprocity theorem [2]. Since in thiscase, the excitation is normal to the sample surface, the combinationof GE-XRF and synchrotron x-ray microprobe permitssurface-sensitive analysis with spatial resolution.