Assessing the accuracy of mass attenuation coeffcients for soft X-ray EPMA

The use of soft X-rays in electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) has gained renewed interest over the past decades due to the advent of new detector technologies. Because X-ray absorption is the dominant correction for soft X-rays, a reliable set of mass attenuation coeffcients (MACs) is needed for accurate composition determination. Although several MAC tabulations cover the soft X-ray range, the accuracy of such tabulations below 1 keV is not firmly established. In this study, we assess the accuracy of MAC tabulations in the soft X-ray region by comparing tabulated values for Be, B, C, N, O and F Ka X-rays with experimental data available in the literature. We find that the 1993 semi-empirical MAC compilation of Henke et al. and the more recent theoretical MAC calculations of Sabbatucci and Salvat (2016) provide the lowest deviation between measured and tabulated values. The latter MAC dataset also provides the best agreement with the few existing experimental measurements for Al L2,3M X-rays.

LLOVET X.;  POEML Philipp;  MOY Aurélien;  FOURNELLE John; 

2023-06-29

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

JRC130597

1431-9276 (online),   

https://academic.oup.com/mam/article-abstract/29/2/540/6927165?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=true,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC130597,   

10.1093/micmic/ozac045 (online),