A program for calculating and plotting soft-X-ray optical interaction coefficients for molecules

Comprehensive tables for atomic scattering factor components f₁ and f₂ were compiled by Henke et al. for the extended photon region of 350-10000 eV. Accurate calculations of optical interaction coefficients for absorption, reflection and scattering by material systems (e.g. filters, multi-layers, etc.), which have widespread application, can be based simply upon the atomic scattering factors for the elements comprising the material, except near the absorption threshold energies. These calculations based upon the weighted sum of f₁ and f₂ for each atomic species present can be very tedious if done by hand. This led us to develop Optical Constants Grapher (OCG), a user-friendly program to perform these calculations on an IBM PC or compatible computer. By entering the chemical formula, density and thickness of up to six molecules, values of f₁, f₂, mass absorption, transmission efficiencies, attenuation lengths, mirror reflectivities and complex indices of refraction can be calculated and plotted as a function of energy or wavelength. This program and its user's manual are available from the authors.