We report a characterization of the Cu Kα profile and a transferable determination of the 2p satellite line using a new Voigt methodology which generates improved fits, smaller residuals and details of Compton profile features. The Kα 1,2 emission of Cu was obtained from a rotating anode through a monolithic Si channel-cut monochromator. Least-squares fitting of a minimum set of Voigt profiles reached a noise limit. Sufficient statistical information and resolution permits the determination of major and minor peak components in a fully-free least-squares analysis rather than the previous constrained single peak-by-peak method. Relative energies of the component Voigts within each profile, linewidths and Kα 1 /Kα 2 peak intensity ratios, are compared to the previous best empirical sum of Lorentzian-slit peaks, clearly demonstrating that a sum of Voigt profiles provides a superior fit to the observed profile. 104 profiles at accelerating voltages from 20 kV through 50 kV provided a stable unique profile across the broad range of 2.5−6.25 times the characteristic energy. This robustness proves the stability of Cu Kα for use in high accuracy calibration, and supports the validity of the impulse approximation across this range of energy. The lineshape, contributions to noise broadening, the quantum yield and the Fano factor, relevant to spectral profiling, are discussed.

Transition metals have Kα and Kβ characteristic radiation possessing complex asymmetric spectral profiles. Instrumental broadening normally encountered in x-ray experiments shifts features of profiles used for calibration, such as peak energy, by many times the quoted accuracies. We measure and characterize the titanium Kβ spectral profile. The peak energy of the titanium Kβ spectral profile is found to be 4931.966 ± 0.022 eV prior to instrumental broadening. This 4.5 ppm result decreases the uncertainty over the past literature by a factor of 2.6 and is 2.4 standard deviations from the previous standard. The spectrum is analysed and the resolution-free lineshape is extracted and listed for use in other experiments. We also incorporate improvement in analysis applied to earlier results for V Kβ.

The meander wire backgammon technology has high levels of flux and spatial linearity across a wide range of energies. One of the attractive features of these technologies is the stability of response and robustness under long X-ray exposure, compactness, and portability. A key problem historically has been the limited range of count-rate for processing to the optimum resolution. We report dramatic advances in this and other areas appropriate for high-accuracy experiments including tests of quantum electrodynamics, fundamental relativistic atomic physics, X-ray calibration, and crystallography. We illustrate this technology applied to the K 1,2 spectra of titanium, chromium, and copper. The quality of the spectra permits deeper insight into atomic and solid state science and permits accurate measurement of energy and relativistic atomic physics processes, below 1-m accuracy or down to 1 ppm in energy. 218 The University of Melbourne (UM) backgammon detector relies on a sophisticated data acquisition system specifically developed for the detector and its use as part of our Johann-type curved crystal X-ray spectrometer. The design allows single photon counting over a wide range of count rates. [30]

A characterization of the Cu K 1,2 spectrum is presented, including the 2p satellite line, K 3,4 , the details of which are robust enough to be transferable to other experiments. This is a step in the renewed attempts to resolve inconsistencies in characteristic X-ray spectra between theory, experiment and alternative experimental geometries. The spectrum was measured using a rotating anode, monolithic Si channel-cut double-crystal monochromator and backgammon detector. Three alternative approaches fitted five Voigt profiles to the data: a residual analysis approach; a peak-by-peak fit; and a simultaneous constrained method. The robustness of the fit is displayed across three spectra obtained with different instrumental broadening. Spectra were not well fitted by transfer of any of three prior characterizations from the literature. Integrated intensities, line widths and centroids are compared with previous empirical fits. The novel experimental setup provides insight into the portability of spectral characterizations of X-ray spectra. From the parameterization, an estimated 3d shake probability of 18% and a 2p shake probability of 0.5% are reported.

The first X-ray Extended Range Technique (XERT)-like experiment at the Australian Synchrotron, Australia, is presented. In this experiment X-ray mass attenuation coefficients are measured across an energy range including the zinc K-absorption edge and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS). These high-accuracy measurements are recorded at 496 energies from 8.51 keV to 11.59 keV. The XERT protocol dictates that systematic errors due to dark current nonlinearities, correction for blank measurements, full-foil mapping to characterize the absolute value of attenuation, scattering, harmonics and roughness are measured over an extended range of experimental parameter space. This results in data for better analysis, culminating in measurement of mass attenuation coefficients across the zinc K-edge to 0.023–0.036% accuracy. Dark current corrections are energy- and structure-dependent and the magnitude of correction reached 57% for thicker samples but was still large and significant for thin samples. Blank measurements scaled thin foil attenuation coefficients by 60–500%; and up to 90% even for thicker foils. Full-foil mapping and characterization corrected discrepancies between foils of up to 20%, rendering the possibility of absolute measurements of attenuation. Fluorescence scattering was also a major correction. Harmonics, roughness and bandwidth were explored. The energy was calibrated using standard reference foils. These results represent the most extensive and accurate measurements of zinc which enable investigations of discrepancies between current theory and experiments. This work was almost fully automated from this first experiment at the Australian Synchrotron, greatly increasing the possibility for large-scale studies using XERT.