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Coating Thickness XRF 🢂 Standard Nomenclature
Standards descriptions are given by the application and material(s) they are designed to measure. The convention we use is to list layers using their atomic symbols, left to right, with the left most layer representing the top layer (the one you can see when you look at the sample). Layers are separated by the “/” symbol. Alloys are combinations of two or more elements separated by the “-“ symbol.
Some examples:
Sn-Pb/Cu = tin lead alloy plating on copper base
Au/Ni/Cu = gold plating on nickel plating on copper base
Zn-Ni/Fe = zinc + nickel alloy layer on steel base
Au-Ag/Pd/Ni/Cu = gold + silver alloy layer on palladium layer on nickel layer on copper base
Au-Cu-Zn-Ag = a jewelry alloy made of gold + copper +zinc+silver. This is considered one “layer”. The alloy is a bulk material (too thick to measure) with no other layers. Such alloy standards are used for composition measurement only and not for thickness measurement.
Foil standards are typically expressed as the foil layer with a base indicated as “XX”. The “XX” represents the fact that there is no base material on the foil standard. Instead, foils can be placed on any base material you choose. In other words, for foil standards, the base is “XX” which is a variable, meant to indicate the foil can be placed on any base material.
Some examples:
Au/XX = gold foils
Au/Ni/XX = gold layer on nickel layer (two layer) foils
Pd-Ni/XX = palladium + nickel alloy foils