Progress in laboratory grazing emission x-ray fluorescence spectrometry

Abstract

Recently, grazing emission x‐ray fluorescence (GEXRF) spectrometry, also referred to as grazing exit spectrometry, attained a special position in the field of XRF. The technique exploits the advantages of the total‐reflection phenomenon as is done in the related total‐reflection XRF technique. The prospects of grazing emission techniques stimulated researchers to explore this field more in detail. This paper describes recent developments in laboratory GEXRF spectrometry together with the applications already performed. The focus is on the progress of a GEXRF spectrometer at normal incidence for the analysis of light elements by using a wavelength‐dispersive detector. With a prototype GEXRF instrument, it is demonstrated that good limits of detection, at the high 1010 at cm−2 for level wafer analysis and sub‐nanogram level for trace analysis of environmental samples, can be achieved. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Challenges of total reflection X-ray fluorescence for surface- and thin-layer analysis

“…It shows special capabilities for micro-and trace element analysis. Related combinations are GI-XRF and grazing exit-XRF (GE-XRF) [26][27][28], especially suitable for surface-and thin-layer analysis. GE-XRF was developed with the aim of gaining several advantages, e.g.…”

“…for a local analysis with excitation by a focused microbeam of synchrotron radiation [26,27]. The expected light element analysis with a wavelength dispersive spectrometer unfortunately did not come about [28]. But analysis of single particles became possible by GE-XRF after excitation with an electron microbeam [29].…”

Depth profiling of low energy ion implantations in Si and Ge by means of micro-focused grazing emission X-ray fluorescence and grazing incidence X-ray fluorescence

“…22 If the X-ray uorescence (XRF) measurements are realized in a grazing geometry (Fig. 1, le panels), i.e., either in the grazing emission X-ray uorescence [23][24][25][26] (GEXRF) or in the grazing incidence X-ray uorescence 27-31 (GIXRF) conguration, a high sensitivity with respect to the surface-near sample composition can be achieved. Combinations of the grazing incidence and emission geometries were also realized in the past in order to prot simultaneously from the surface sensitivity of both techniques.…”

Grazing Emission X‐Ray Fluorescence: Novel Concepts and Applications for Nano‐Analytics

“…[ 37 ] Indeed, the sensitivity to light elements was one of the main motivations to develop wavelength‐dispersive GEXRF spectrometers as a complement to the grazing‐incidence setups used for metallic contamination control. [ 72 ] The initial works used a wavelength‐dispersive setup based on slits, a dispersive element and a counting detector, which improved the discrimination capabilities of grazing XRF techniques in the low‐Z range when using an X‐ray tube [ 37,72,73 ] or performing experiments requiring depth‐resolution capabilities. [ 67,74,75 ] This was followed by GEXRF measurements using a von Hamos crystal X‐ray spectrometer with a position‐resolved detector, to assess the detection limits of different elements when using synchrotron radiation [ 58,59 ] and to realize depth‐profiling applications.…”