On the measurement by EDX of diffusion profiles of Ni/Cu assemblies

To characterise (inter)diffusion in materials, concentration profiles can be measured by EDX. It allows one to determine the chemical composition with a very good accuracy if measurement artefacts are accounted for. Standard phenomena (such as X-ray fluorescence) are usually corrected by commercial software. However, the effect of the pear-shaped volume of X-ray emission on the concentration profiles has to be considered. The paper describes the origin of this artefact, its consequences on measurements and will provide a practical solution (based on signal processing methods) to deconvolute the actual concentration profiles (or the diffusion coefficient) from the raw measurements.