Abstract
The relationship between the shape of a real spectrum and the representation of the spectrum that is generated by a linear spectrometer may be described by a Fredholm integral equation. The Burger-van Cittert iterative method for solving the equation is applied to x-ray fluorescence spectra. The extent of enhancement that may be reached is limited by overcorrection in the wings of the recorded lines and the appearance of negative lobes. Reduction in line width of about 20% is a practical limit. There is an inherent increase in noise caused by the enhancement procedure, but this can be minimized by a subsequent spectral smoothing operation. The Burger-van Cittert method is especially suited to on-line treatment of data with a minicomputer or a computer-controlled multichannel analyzer.
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