New spectrometer for grazing exit x-ray fluorescence

Abstract

Among the x-ray fluorescence techniques using energy dispersive systems, the excitation in the total reflection regime is becoming widespread. This technique may be applied to surface analysis if the fluorescent radiation emitted by the sample is measured as a function of the grazing incidence angle. The main limitation in performing this sort of analysis is the need to use a monochromator, which notably reduces the incident flux of radiation. Besides, the method requires the radiated surface to be perfectly smooth and polished and to have a total length of some centimeters. A similar technique known as grazing exit x-ray fluorescence presents certain advantages and is easier to implement. By this method, fluorescent photons in terms of the grazing exit angle are detected. In this work, a spectrometer for performing surface analysis at grazing exit is described, the different experimental situations are analyzed, and some measurements performed with this device are shown.