Discrimination and quantification of Fe and Ni abundances in Genesis solar wind implanted collectors using X-ray standing wave fluorescence yield depth profiling with internal referencing

Abstract

X-ray standing wave fluorescence yield depth profiling was used to determine the solar wind implanted Fe and Ni fluences in a silicon-on-sapphire (SoS) Genesis collector (60326). An internal reference standardization method was developed based on fluorescence from Si and Al in the collector materials. Measured Fe fluence agreed well with that measured previously by us on a sapphire collector (50722) as well as SIMS results by Jurewicz et al. Measured Ni fluence was higher than expected by a factor of two; neither instrumental errors nor solar wind fractionation effects are considered significant perturbations to this value. Impurity Ni within the epitaxial Si layer, if present, could explain the high Ni fluences and therefore needs further investigation. As they stand, these results are consistent with minor temporally-variable Fe and Ni fractionation on the timescale of a year.