Introduction

Having a list of all x-ray transitions of the elements is quite useful, in particular when analysing x-ray fluorescence spectra.

This work was based on data from the PANalytical Epsilon 5 software, version 2.0J/ICSW 2.8 of Dec 7, 2010 with kernel PW5050. In this software, data on every transition’s energy and relative intensity was stored in a user-accessible format, as well as the edge energies for each element.

The Epsilon 5 data was used to amend my original dataset, which I got from Kaye & Laby, Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants, National Physical Laboratory. Where the two datasets diverged (usually at the third decimal) I gave priority to the Epsilon 5 data.

I have improved on this dataset, and included natural line width and fluorescence yield data from the works of Krause and Oliver (1979) and Krause (1979).

I collated this data into two datasets (Ahmed 2014b, 2014a) which we will explore below.

Line energies

Figure 1: Transition energy vs Z.

Figure 2: Distribution of the transition series.

Figure 3: Natural width of the \(\mathrm{K}\alpha_1\) and \(\mathrm{K}\alpha_2\) lines.

Figure 4: Fluorescence yields of the \(\mathrm{K}\), \(\mathrm{L}_1\), \(\mathrm{L}_2\), and \(\mathrm{L}_3\) lines.

Figure 5: \(\mathrm{K}\beta\) and \(\mathrm{K}\alpha\) relative intensities (in percent). This looks extra messy because most elements have more than one \(\mathrm{K}\beta\) or (in particular) more than one \(\mathrm{K}\alpha\) transition.

Figure 6: Variations of \(\mathrm{K}\beta/\mathrm{K}\alpha\) with atomic number.

The energy of the strongest \(\mathrm{K}\), \(\mathrm{L}\), and \(\mathrm{M}\) lines

Bibliography

Offered in no particular order, and in no particular style.

• Kaye, G. W. C. (1995). Kaye & Laby: Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants (sixteenth ed., p. 611). Harlow: Longman. Retrieved from http://www.kayelaby.npl.co.uk/toc/
• Kaye & Laby: Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants. Absorption of photons
• X-ray transition energies database, NIST
• Naming transitions, course GLG 510 by James H. Wittke, Northern Arizona Univ.
• Periodic table. (Cites a few pertinent references).
• X-ray emission energies, X-ray data booklet by Kortright and Thompson, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• This one contains a few nice graphics.
• Scanned transitions graphic.
• X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, by AmpTek Inc. (a detector manufacturer).
• X-ray fluorescence: understanding characteristic x-rays, AmpTek Inc. [pdf].
• X-ray physics lab instruction, MIT dept of physics 2007 [pdf].
• EDS software manual from Mikroanalytik.
• The nature of x-ray photoelectron spectra, CasaXPS.
• Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry and X-ray Microanalysis, Portland State Univ. [pdf]
• X-ray Compositional Microanalysis: EDS and WDS by Barker and Fournelle.
• Analysis of solid alternative fuel materials (PANalytical application note) [pdf].
• X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, by Karl Wirth, Purdue Univ.
• Leading the way in heavy metals analysis, PANalytical application note [pdf].

Session info

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