Experimental x-ray-production cross sections for the M3, M4, and M5 subshells of Pt and Au by electron impact

Abstract

X-ray-production cross sections for M3, M4, and M5 subshells of Pt and Au by electron impact were experimentally determined at incident energies ranging between 2.8 and 28 keV. To this purpose, Pt and Au thick targets were irradiated by an electron beam in a field-emission-gun scanning electron microscope, and the x-ray-emission spectra were recorded with an energy-dispersive spectrometer. The x-ray-production cross sections were obtained as a result of the spectral processing performed through a careful parameter optimization routine previously developed, which involves an analytical function for the prediction of the experimental spectra, on the basis of ionization depth distribution functions. The results are compared with the scarce data available in the literature.