Effect of chemical environment on K shell binding energy of tungsten using a weak beta source

The K shell binding energy of tungsten in its pure elemental form and in some of its compounds has been measured for the first time by adopting a novel method. The method involves a weak beta source, an external Bremsstrahlung (EB) converter, element and compound targets and a high resolution HPGe detector coupled to 16K multichannel analyzer. Continuous EB photons produced by the interaction of beta particles from ⁹⁰Sr-⁹⁰Y radioactive source with an iron foil are allowed to pass through the elemental and compound targets of W. The spectrum of transmitted EB photons is measured with a high resolution HPGe detector spectrometer. The transmitted spectrum shows sudden drop in intensity at K shell binding energy of the target. Such sudden drop, which is due to the onset of K shell photoelectric effect, has been used to determine the K shell binding energies. Shifts in the K shell binding energies due to chemical environment of W atoms are observed. (author)