Experimental and theoretical approaches for determining the K-shell fluorescence yield of carbon

TL;DR

This paper combines experimental measurements at a synchrotron facility with advanced theoretical calculations to accurately determine the K-shell fluorescence yield of carbon, addressing uncertainties in existing data for low-Z elements.

Contribution

It provides new, high-precision experimental and theoretical values for the carbon K-shell fluorescence yield, improving data quality for elemental analysis.

Findings

Experimental value obtained at BESSY II

Theoretical calculations using multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock method

Comparison with existing literature data

Abstract

The knowledge of atomic fundamental parameters, such as the fluorescence yields with low uncertainties, is of decisive importance in elemental quantification involving X-ray fluorescence analysis techniques. However, especially for the low-Z elements, the available literature data are either of poor quality, of unknown or very large uncertainty, or both. For this reason, the K-shell fluorescence yield of carbon was determined in the PTB laboratory at the synchrotron radiation facility BESSY II. In addition, theoretical calculations of the same parameter were performed using the multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock method, including relativistic and quantum electrodynamics (QED) corrections. Both values obtained in this work are compared to the corresponding available literature data.