| Abstract: | The absolute efficiency of X-ray production has been determined for the K-lines of Al, Si and Cu; for the L-lines of Fe, Co, Cu, Ge and As; and for the M-lines of Hf, Ir, Pt, Au and Bi, using overvoltage ratios in the range 1–10. These emissions, with the exception of the Cu K, have critical excitation energies below 2.6 keV and are therefore typical of the lines used for X-ray microanalysis at low beam energies. For K-lines it is found that the experimental results are in good agreement with a Bethe, or a Casnati, cross-section model. For the L- and M-lines a Monte Carlo technique has been used to find an effective X-ray generation cross-section for each of the elements. The functional forms of these cross-sections are found to be in general agreement with proposed theoretical models. |
