Computer analysis of X-ray spectra

A program has been devised to analyze energy dispersive Si(Li) detector X-ray spectra. The computational sequence of the program is to construct and subtract an estimated background using least-squares and spline fits, convolute the spectra with Gaussians of varying widths to bring out peaks and smooth the data, convolute with an offset Gaussian to establish peak and half-width crossings, and least-squares fit the peaks to obtain accurate values for the peak energies, amplitudes, and widths. The peaks are then paired to the elements they represent. © 1978.