Abstract
Electron probe microanalysis is a nondestructive technique widely used to determine the elemental composition of bulk samples. This was extended to layered specimens, with the development of appropriate software. The traditional quantification method requires the use of matrix correction procedures based upon models of the ionization depth distribution, the so-called ϕ(ρz) distribution. Most of these models have led to commercial quantification programs but only few of them allow the quantification of layered specimens. Therefore, we developed BadgerFilm, a free open-source thin film program available to the general public. This program implements a documented ϕ(ρz) model as well as algorithms to calculate fluorescence in bulk and thin film samples. Part 1 of the present work aims at describing the operation of the implemented ϕ(ρz) distribution model and validating its implementation against experimental measurements and Monte Carlo simulations on bulk samples. The program has the ability to predict absolute X-ray intensities that can be directly compared to Monte Carlo simulations. We demonstrate that the implemented model works very well for bulk materials. And as will be shown in Part 2, BadgerFilm predictions for thin film specimens are also shown to be in good agreements with experimental and Monte Carlo results.
Highlights
The elemental quantification of materials by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) requires the use of matrix correction procedures
The relaxation parameters, mass absorption coefficient (MAC) and ionization cross sections used by default in BadgerFilm to predict the emitted X-ray intensity, are the same as the atomic parameters used in the general-purpose Monte Carlo code PENELOPE 2018 (Salvat, 2019), and in PENEPMA (Llovet & Salvat, 2017), a program that uses the subroutines of PENELOPE to simulate X-ray spectra and quantities of interest for microanalysis by EPMA
The proposed phi-rho-z implementation was designed to employ the same atomic parameters used in the Monte Carlo code PENEPMA (Llovet & Salvat, 2017) allowing a direct comparison of the calculated X-ray intensities in absolute values of photon per electron per steradian with experimental data or Monte Carlo simulations
Summary
The elemental quantification of materials by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) requires the use of matrix correction procedures. To determine the composition of bulk samples, the emitted primary characteristic X-ray intensity can be evaluated using the so-called φ(ρz) distribution, describing the ionization depth distribution of a given electron shell of a given element by electron impact in a material.
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