Fluorine depth profiling based on the 19F(p,p’γ)19F excitation function

Ion beam analysis of fluorine has applications in research on teeth and bones, materials science, geochemistry and archaeometry. A novel PIGE (Particle Induced Gamma-ray Emission) standard free methodology for fluorine content determination for in-depth heterogeneous samples based on the excitation function of the 19F(p,p’γ)19F nuclear reaction is presented. New precise cross section measurements of this reaction in the proton energy range 2.1 to 4.1 MeV have been performed. In addition, the ERYA-Profiling code, a computer program specially developed for PIGE analysis of in-depth heterogeneous samples, employed this new excitation function in a case study where different fluorine simulated depth profiles probed the capability of insight into fluorine distributions in a given sample, showing the potential of PIGE analysis.