Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T06:30:08.247Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Characteristic and Continuum Fluorescence in Electron Beam X-ray Microanalysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

C.E. Nockolds*
Affiliation:
Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia
Get access

Extract

Of the different aspects of electron probe microanalysis(EPMA)which were studied by Castaing during his doctorate the work on characteristic x-ray fluorescence was the most definitive. In his thesis, which was completed in 1951, Castaing established the physical and mathematical framework for a correction procedure for fluorescence which is essentially still used in EPMA today. Much of the effort since then has been in refining and improving the accuracy of the correction and extending the scope of the correction to a wider range of specimen types. The Castaing formula was developed for the case of a K x-ray from element A being excited by a K xray from element B (K-K fluorescence) and in 1965 Reed extended the range of the correction by including the K-L, L-L and L-K interactions. In the same paper Reed also introduced the expression from Green and Cosslett for the calculation of K intensities, which was believed to be more accurate than the expression used by Castaing. The original formula included a somewhat unrealistic exponential term to allow for the depth of the production of the primary x-rays and a number of workers have tried replacing this term with a more accurate expression, however, in general this has led to only small changes in the final correction. Reed also simplified the formula in order to make the calculation easier in the days before fast computers; in particular he replaced the jump ratio variable by two constants, one for the K-shell and one for the L-shell. Much later Heinrich showed that this simplification was no longer necessary and that the jump ratio could in fact be calculated directly.

Type
MAS Celebrates: Fifty Years of Electron Probe Microanalysis
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Castaing, R., Doctoral Thesis, University of Paris (1951).Google Scholar
2.Reed, S.J.B., Brit. J. Appl. Phys., 16 (1965) 913.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Green, M. and Cosslett, V.E., Proc. Phys. Soc., 78 (1961) 1206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Heinrich, K.F.J., Microbeam Analysis - 1987, 23.Google Scholar
5.Henoc, J., NBS Special Pub. 298, (1968) 197.Google Scholar
6.Springer, G., Neues Jahrb. Mineral., Abhandl., 106 (1967) 241.Google Scholar
7.Henoc, J., Heinrich, K.F.J. and Myklebust, R.L., NBS Tech. Note 769, (1973).Google Scholar
8.Armstrong, J.T. and Buseck, P.R., X-ray Spectrometry, 14 (1985) 172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Maurice, F., Seguin, R. and Henoc, J., in Optique des Rayons X et Microanalyse, Hermann (Paris), ed. Castaing, et al, (1966) 357.Google Scholar
10.Packwood, R.H and Brown, J., X-ray Spectrometry, 10 (1981) 138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Pouchou, J.L. and Pichoir, F., in Proc 11th IXCOM, (1987) 249.Google Scholar
12.Pouchou, J.L. and Pichoir, F., in Electron Probe Quantitation, Plenum Press (New York), ed. Heinrich, K.F.J. and Newbury, D.E., (1991) 31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Waldo, R.A., Microbeam Analysis -1991, (1991) 45.Google Scholar
14.Philibert, J. and Tixier, R., in Physical Aspects of Electron Microscopy and Microbeam Analysis, Wiley (New York), ed.Siegel, and Beaman, , (1975), 38.Google Scholar
15.Nockolds, C., Cliff, G. and Lorimer, G.W., Micron, 11 (1980) 325.Google Scholar
16.Twigg, M.E. and Fraser, H.L., Microbeam Analysis - 1982, (1982) 37.Google Scholar
17.Anderson, I.M., Bentley, J. and Carter, C.B, J. of Microscopy, 178 (1995) 226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar