Elastic and inelastic mean free paths for scattering of fast electrons in thin-film oxides

•We implement a fast and precise method for the extraction of inelastic and elastic mean free paths values in technologically important oxide thin films.•We measured the elastic and inelastic mean free paths for 200 keV and 80 keV electrons as a function of collection angle for: SiO2 (Thermal, CVD), low-κ SiOCH, Al2O3, TiO2, ZnO, Ta2O5 and HfO2.•We propose functional relations for the elastic MFP and inelastic MFP in oxides with respect to the mass density and effective atomic number, with improved accuracy with respect to the Wenzel, Malis and Iakoubovskii models.