On the calculation of Kβ/Kα X-ray intensity ratios

Possible sources of the systematic discrepancies between experimental data and theoretical predictions for the X-ray K beta /K alpha intensity ratios recently confirmed by Perujo et al. (1987) are numerically studied for Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn and Ge. Special attention is paid to the dependence of calculated intensity ratios on the way of generating the one-electron functions and choice of gauge convention. The impact of the Breit, self-energy and vacuum polarisation corrections is also studied. A new scheme is proposed in which results are in better agreement with experiment than the standard Scofield approach.