This book (Practical Electron Microscopy and Database) is a reference for TEM and SEM students, operators, engineers, technicians, managers, and researchers.

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Figure 4676a schematically shows some details regarding possible electron transitions that give rise to K and L characteristic X-rays. However, only a small fraction of transistions generates sufficient X-rays for detection in electron microscopes and we don’t need to worry about some details because either the X-ray detectors can’t usually distinguish between the X-rays from different subshells or some transitions are not detectable by EDS in electron microscopes, except at the highest X-ray energies. Therefore, K, L, and M shells as well as α and β notations are about all we need to remember in our EDS experiments. For your convenience, Figure 4676b schematically shows the transitions in a different way.

Figure 4676b. Schematically showing the transitions in a different way.