Correction for atomic number in X-ray electron probe microanalysis by spectra of reflected electrons

Abstract

Spectra of reflected electrons (REs) are studied on specially created equipment with an electron spectrometer. A linear dependence of the intensity of maxima in RE spectra of various elements on their atomic numbers is revealed. A linear equation is derived for calculating losses of electron probe due to REs. The introduction of a Z-correction for atomic number in X-ray electron probe microanalysis is proposed based on the ratio of losses due to RE in the sample and standard. The procedure is verified on a big array of the results of analyses (170 altogether) of different sets of elements with the difference in atomic numbers from 8 to 86. With the introduction the Z-correction, the error of the results of analyses of arbitration samples was characterized by the following parameters: arithmetic mean deviation 0.65%, relative standard deviation RSD = 0.78%. 92% of errors fall within the range ≤2.5%. These performance characteristics are two to three times better than those published previously.