Determination of the rare-earth∶Nb mass ratio in doped LiNbO3 by the TXRF technique

Abstract
This paper describes a new method for evaluating the mass contents of rare-earth elements used as dopants in LiNbO3 single crystals with respect to Nb. The method is based on the technique of total-reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF). The method presented does not require chemical manipulation of the samples and is rapid (30 min sample preparation and 10 min analysis), precise (between 2 and 8% of variation coefficient) and simple.