Investigation on Feasibility and Detection Limits for Determination of Coating Film Thickness by Neutron Activation Analysis

A method for the determination of coating film thickness by neutron activation was proposed in this paper. After Au, Al and Cu et al. films were activated with a Am-Be neutron source, the characteristic γ-rays emitted by the activated nuclides in the films were counted with a HPGe γ spectrometer. The detection limits of film thickness by ray counts and the Monte-Carlo simulated detection efficiencies. The possible detection limits are typically 4-5 orders of magnitude better than those by fluorescent X-ray method, which is currently widely used to determine coating film thickness.