Effect of processes initiated after creation of primary vacancies on L and M shell x-ray emission

Abstract

The process of X-ray emission follows the various vacancy rearrangement processes within the atomic subshells initiated after the creation of primary vacancies in the inner shells. The X-rays resulting from the primary vacancies contain information on the concerned process responsible for creation of vacancy . However, it is found that in all shells above K shell, some processes faster in time alter the initial primary vacancy distribution in different subshells of a shell before these vacancies are filled either through X-ray emission or Auger process. The processes initiated after the primary vacancy creation, which result in alteration of the primary vacancy distribution in L and higher subshells, include the following. The Intra-shell vacancy transfer The Inter-shell vacancy transfer Due to these processes, in measurements involving inner shells, the Xray energies and intensities do not reveal true characteristics of the primary vacancies and the contribution of processes initiated after the primary interactions have to be properly taken care of. In the work done in past, these contributions to the primary vacancies have either been eliminated/controlled experimentally or accounted for otherwise, by different workers under their typical experimental conditions only. Very little work has been done for a detailed insight into the contribution of the vacancies initiated after the primary interaction processes leading to X-ray emission.