Carbon Characteristic X-Rays from Gaseous Compounds

Abstract

Carbon spectra from CH₄, C₂H₆, C₃H₈, C₄H₁₀, CCl₄, CBr₄, CF₄, benzene, cyclohexane, ethylene, acetylene, CO, and CO₂ have been measured in an ultrasoft x‐ray spectrometer using electron‐beam excitation, a lead stearate multilayer analyzer, and a thin window flow proportional counter. The spectra have been corrected for background and normalized so that the height of the largest peak of each spectra is the same. Similar molecular species exhibit similar spectra. Furthermore, for the alkanes, a correlation is observed between the position of the main peak and the first ionization potential of the molecule.