X-ray fluorescence is the emission of characteristic or secondary X-rays from a material that has been excited by bombarding with high energy electrons, or other X-ray or γ-ray photons. If the incident particle has enough energy, it can knock out an orbital electron out of the inner shell of the target atom. To fill the vacancy, one of the electrons from the higher shells then jumps to the inner shell, emitting in the process, a photon with energy equal to the difference in binding energy of the two shells. The X-ray fluorescence produces an emission spectrum of X-rays at discrete energies. These emission spectral lines depend on the target element and hence are called characteristic or fluorescent X-rays. We can use these spectra to identify the elements by comparing the peak’s energy with the element’s binding energy.

X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (xrf)

Analysis Method

F70