LAUSR

Quantitative chemical analysis, an essential step in material development and characterization, remains a trying task due to the electron-matter interaction phenomena that affect acquired data. One such problem is X-ray absorption, where photons generated inside a material are absorbed by other atoms prior to exit [1]. The photon is absorbed and the energy is transferred to the orbital electron. This causes attenuations in the amount of X-rays exiting the surface and a discrepancy in the intensities detected. These discrepancies can be accounted for in simulations if the mass absorption coefficient (MAC) is known. MACs have been largely tabulated for the Kα lines of a wide range of elements [2]. However, with new capabilities for doing microanalysis and chemical quantification using soft X-rays at low accelerating voltages, MAC values for lower excitation energy lines must be known. At energies exciting the L, M, and N shells of materials, chemical bonding and effects within the band structure can come into play, increasing the complexity of determining the mass absorption contribution and constructing accurate simulation calculations [3]. Furthermore, this implies that such MAC values may also vary with phase composition and are not necessarily constant for each single element. Here, we investigate the contributions of these factors to the mass absorption calculation and provide a method for computing mass absorption coefficients of soft Xrays.