Radioisotope sources for X-ray fluorescence analysis

Monte Carlo simulation of the backscatter region in energy‐dispersive x‐ray fluorescence spectra of homogeneous multi‐element samples with an application to quantitative analysis

“…The input data used in the Monte Carlo program for the simulation of Ag K a backscatter peaks of a known sample (for one scattering event per photon) are the following: (1) the parameters of the counting geometry; (2) density and thickness of the sample; (3) weight fractions of the constituents; (4) total crosssection at the exciting photon energy, a , ; (5) total and differential Compton and Rayleigh cross-sections for each constituent at the exciting photon energy, and scattering and form factors; (6) Compton profiles for each constituent or an effective Compton profile for chemical-compound samples as determined from Fig. 6; (7) total cross-section at the scattered photon energy, a?.…”

“…In Table 2, where a , and a ; values are listed for all the samples, it can be observed that these two cross-section values are very close, and a , can be used instead of a ; . This approximation has no effect on the relative intensities of the Compton peaks for the constituents of the same sample because the same weighting factor w6 = exp (-pa,'L) (5) is used for all the constituents, where w6 is the probability of a photon not giving any interaction while it is travelling out of the target as given in Fig. 1, p is the sample density and L is the distance travelled by the photon.…”