PROGRESS IN THE CHARACTERIZATION OF LAYERED STRUCTURES BY X-RAY-MICROANALYSIS

Recent advances in the mathematical description of the depth distribut ion of X-ray generation, phi(rho z), have permitted the quantitative a nalysis of multilayer structures with a precision approaching +/-1 nm. A weighted average mass absorption coefficient is proposed for use in analysis with L series radiation when the energy separation of the co mponent lines is less than the spectrometer resolution. This is shown to improve agreement between experimental data and the theoretically c alculated X-ray intensities. An example of the application of the phi( rho z) method to the analysis of a titanium-boron nitride bilayer is d escribed with special reference to the problem of detection of interfa cial diffusion and oxidation phenomena.