Measurement of thickness of samples by STIM for PIXE analysis

Sato, Takahiro; Sakai, Takuro; Oikawa, Masakazu*

The purpose of this study is to correct yields of characteristic X-ray in micro-PIXE analysis by using STIM and computer simulation. To compensate the reduction of X-ray yields, thickness of a sample must be taken accurately with spatial resolution of a few microns but it is difficult to measure them by micro-PIXE analysis. Therefore, we use STIM to investigate them. Furthermore, we developed a computer simulation code to correct the X-ray yields. To confirm validity of our code, ion exchange resins, which are similar to biological cells in size, were used as a test sample. There were some wrong distributions of sodium in micro-PIXE analysis of ion exchange resins. But, they could be corrected to some extent by using our code.