Calibration of tube excited energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectrometers with thin film standards and with fundamental constants

Abstract

Abstract The calibration of an energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectrometer is calculated from published physical constants, when the geometry factor of secondary target, sample, detector is obtained experimentally and when the detection efficiency of the Si(Li) detector is calculated from such experimentally derived parameters as the thickness of cryostat window, gold surface barrier contact and silicon dead layer. The results are compared with calibrations obtained experimentally from commercial single element thin film standards obtained by vacuum evaporation and multielement standards obtained by incorporating known amounts of the elements into a thin film polymer. The results obtained from fundamental parameters agree with the experimental data to within 5–6%.