A compact wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectrometer for particle-induced X-ray emission analysis

A new compact wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectrometer has been developed for our compact high energy ion microprobe system (“mikro-i”). This spectrometer is designed to detect four light elements, boron, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Using two multilayer X-ray analyzers, multilayer benders cut from a single metal block and a gas-proportional counter with a 150 mm × 20 mm wide, 1 μm thick polymer window, the compact dimensions of the spectrometer are achieved. The result of initial X-ray detection has shown that the spectrometer has less than 21 eV (FWHM) resolution for each element, small enough to discriminate their characteristic X-ray lines from disturbing ones. Also, the same detection limit has been shown for oxygen for the trace element analysis.