Determination of van der Waals thin film thickness via characteristic X-ray photon yield

Abstract

Characteristic X ray generation is essential for producing X ray sources and for investigating light matter interactions. Here, we demonstrate that characteristic X ray generation can also be employed to determine the thickness of van der Waals thin films in a non destructive manner. Specifically, we establish a sixth order polynomial model that relates film thickness to the characteristic X ray yield. The model can both predict the X ray yield of graphite films at arbitrary thicknesses and infer the film thickness from a corresponding characteristic X ray yield. We validate the model by comparing its predicted X ray yields for graphite films with those obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. Additionally, we experimentally validated the reliability and feasibility of the proposed method for extracting graphite film thickness via X ray photon yield characterization. Our results provide a non destructive approach for determining the thickness of van der Waals thin films.