Production Efficiencies of X-Ray Emission Spectra by Proton Bombardment

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Abstract
Production efficiencies for the excitation of characteristic soft X-ray emission spectra by proton bombardment were investigated. Results were obtained for K-, L-, and M-shell lines of various elements as a function of proton energies ranging up to 100 keV. For comparison putposes, helium, nitrogen, and argon ions also were accelerated and used as bombarding particles to yield efficiency data for some of the same spectral lines. The data demonstrate that: 1. The production efficiencies of spectral lines excited by protons are, in the first approximation, dependent on wavelength only and are independent of the atomic shell with which they are associated. 2. Production efficiencies increase with the atomic weight of the bombarding ions for some of the spectral lines investigated. X-ray generation by proton bombardment is a powerful method for producing high-intensity monochromatic radiation for wavelengths above approximately 10 Å, The same technique can be used for analytical purposes to determine the concentration of low atomic number elements.

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