Mykhailov A. Interatomic interaction and identification of compounds of light elements by the combined X-ray spectrum

Scattering is traditionally considered a background source in fluorescence and diffraction spectra and is usually not used for analytical purposes. At the same time, the first application of scattering for analytical purposes is associated with the discovery of the Compton effect, as a result of which two scattering peaks appear in the spectrum. One is unchanged wavelength coherent (Rayleigh), the other with increased wavelength incoherent (Compton) scattering. The ratio of the intensities of these peaks has a unique property - it sharply increases with decreasing atomic number of the scatterer up to hydrogen. The peculiarity of the method is that the wavelength of scattered radiation does not depend on the atomic number of the diffuser and the position of the peaks in the scattering spectrum cannot be used to determine the atomic number according to Mosley's law in contrast to X-ray fluorescence analysis. Therefore, this method is indistinguishable from a single-component material from a multicomponent material having a close average atomic number. For the first time, the dependence of the intensity of scattered radiation on the conditions of spectrum registration was used to identify materials, namely on the momentum transfer variable.