Values of cross sections for ionization of inner-shell electrons by electron impact are required for electron probe microanalysis, Auger-electron spectroscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy. In this work, the results of the measurement of inner-shell ionization cross-sections by electron impact, Q, in a TEM are presented for the K shell.The measurement of QNi has been performed at 120 KeV in a TEM by measuring the net X-ray intensity of the Kα line of Ni, INi, which is related to QNi by the relation :(1)where i is the total electron dose, (Ω/4π)is the fractional solid angle, ω is the fluorescence yield, α is the relative intensity factor, ε is the Si (Li) detector efficiency, A is the atomic weight, ρ is the sample density, No is Avogadro's number, t' is the distance traveled by the electrons in the specimen which is equal to τ sec θ neglecting beam broadening where τ is the specimen thickness and θ is the angle between the electron beam and the normal of the thin foil and CNi is the weight fraction of Ni.
