Case study: use of µXRF to study coating failures

Case study

Bombardment of a material with high energy X-rays causes emission of secondary X-rays that are characteristic to the elemental composition of the material. The emission is called X-ray fluorescence (XRF), which is a widely spread technique for material characterization. Most of the XRF instruments are stand alone spectrometers for bulk measurements. Applications range from thin film analysis to elemental identification and quantification.