Development of a charge-induced X-ray fluorescence process using ion-beams: An improvement on the XSQR technique

The phenomenon of excessively high X-ray production from non-conducting tar gets, irradiated with accelerated ion beams, was discovered accidentally in the early 1990's. This initiated a chain of studies that culminated in the proposal of a new mechanism of X-ray excitation. The proposal stated that the phenomenon is charge-induced and that the enhanced X-ray yields arose f rom the build-up of potential on the sample and the discharge which followe d. This subsequently led to the development of a charge-induced XRF process with protons and alpha-particles. This paper describes empirical studies r elated to this development and provides a general overview of applications associated with the process.