Thickness scan of metallic layer by photon induced X-ray emission

Simple and efficient method for precise surface density measurement in the range of about few mg/cm(2) for layers consisting of heavy elements, based on photon induced X-ray emission has been developed. The method has been applied to analyze Mott-scattering targets used in the measurement of the transverse electron polarization of electrons emitted in the neutron beta decay. The achieved relative accuracy is 1%. The absolute calibration accuracy of 2.3% was achieved with the atomic absorption spectroscopy. (C) 201 1 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.