Depth profiling in surface regions of oxidized metal alloys by low energy PIXE

As a nondestructive technique for depth profiling of elements the PIXE-method was applied to determine the concentration profile of elements in the near surface of oxidized metal alloys. The outer region of about 1 m was investigated using low energy protons for X-ray excitation. A set of X-ray yield measurements was carried out at proton energies of 150 to 300 keV. The unfolding of the X-ray yields was performed by calculation of proton energy loss, X-ray production cross section and X-ray attenuation.