Influence of different mass absorption coefficient datasets on PIXE yields

Tabulated mass absorption coefficient data from the XCOM, Chantler and ion beam analysis (IBA) Handbook are compared, and differences are shown against X-ray energy and target atomic number. Over the X-ray energy range 1–40 keV systematic differences of several tens of percent are noted between these datasets, particularly for the earlier IBA Handbook dataset. The influence of these different mass absorption coefficients on the X-ray yields for thick target proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) are investigated and compared as a function of X-ray energy and target atomic number. For contemporary experimental PIXE users trying to work quantitatively over a broad range of elements and X-ray energies, differences between PIXE results obtained using these three separate mass attenuation coefficient datasets can be larger than the typical accuracy limits of ±3% to ±5%. There are systematic differences in the mass attenuation coefficients of 5–10% between the XCOM and Chantler, while the differences for the IBA Handbook dataset can be larger (up to 40% and greater) at high X-ray energies. At this time, we recommend the dataset of Chantler as it is more recent, and the synchrotron experimental results seem to favour it over the older XCOM and IBA Handbook data. © 2013, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd