AbstractA non‐destructive method for the analysis of materials using gamma ray‐induced fluorescent x‐ray emission has been developed. In this method, special preparation of very thin samples in which the absorption of the incident gamma rays and the emitted fluorescent x‐rays is negligible, is not needed, and the absorption correction is determined experimentally. A suitable choice of the incident gamma ray energies is made to minimise enhancement effects through selective photoionization of the elements in the sample. The method is applied to the analysis of a typical sample of the soldering material using 279 keV and 59.5 keV gamma rays from203Hg and241Am radioactive sources respectively. The results of the analysis are found to agree well with those obtained from the chemical a