Application of the integrated voigt function in analysis of experimental line spectra

Abstract

In many branches of spectroscopy, the Lorentzian and Gaussian functions are assumed to describe the intrinsic and statistical broadening effects of emission lines and of resonances. When both these broadening effects are seen, their convolutions, the Voigt functions, are used to describe shapes of the peaks. In this work, the integrated Voigt function, Vint, is introduced for the calculation of the peak shapes. Also, a new model of the step function, based on physical considerations, is introduced. The model applies the same Vint that is used to calculate the peak function. The program has been developed to analyse K X-ray spectra of heavy elements, measured with high-purity germanium detectors. To illustrate the method, results of analysis of two spectra are presented.