Abstract
Absolute L- and M-subshell x-ray production cross sections of Pb have been measured for incident electron energies ranging from 3 to 38 keV. The experimental cross sections were obtained by measuring Lα, Lβ, Mα, Mβ and Mγ x-ray intensities emitted from ultrathin Pb films deposited onto self-supporting thin C films. Measurements were performed on two electron microprobes using wavelength-dispersive spectrometers. X-ray intensities were converted into x-ray production cross sections by using estimated values of the number of incident electrons, target thickness and spectrometer efficiency. Experimental results are compared with calculated cross sections obtained using different predictive formulae, and, whenever possible, with experimental data from the literature.