TY - JOUR A1 - Procop, Mathias A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan A1 - Rackwitz, Vanessa T1 - A microfocus X-ray source for improved EDS and XRF analysis in the SEM N2 - A microfocus X-ray source mounted on the analysis chamber of an SEM was used to excite X-ray fluorescence spectra and to detect chemical elements with concentrations below the detection limit of the electron-excited X-ray spectra conventionally measured with SEM/EDS. An aluminium alloy and a hard material ceramics were analysed as representative examples. It is demonstrated that the combination of the three analytical methods: (1) SEM imaging for surface morphology characterisation; (2) electron-excited X-ray spectroscopy with its high spatial resolution for element analysis of inclusions or precipitates; and (3) X-ray fluorescence for the detection of elements with concentrations below 0.1 mass% considerably improves the performance of SEM/EDX analyses. KW - Scanning electron microscopy KW - Microanalysis KW - Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy KW - X-ray fluorescence KW - Micro-XRF KW - Materials science PY - 2011 SN - 2043-0655 VL - 25 IS - 4 SP - 11 EP - 13 PB - Wiley CY - Chichester AN - OPUS4-23764 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Procop, Mathias A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - Uncertainties in secondary fluorescence correction in EPMA N2 - Secondary fluorescence is an inevitable effect that has to be taken into account in any algorithm for quantitative electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) as an additional correction. Moreover, secondary fluorescence worsens spatial resolution of EPMA. Secondary fluorescence is excited both by characteristic radiation and by the X-ray continuum. In most cases the correction is small. There are, however, cases, e.g. the determination of low heavy metal concentration in a light matrix, where the contribution of secondary fluorescence exceeds 10% of the measured X-ray line intensity. For secondary fluorescence correction the measured X-ray line intensity has to be divided by the correction factor (1+I_flchar/I_p +I_flcont/I_p )≈(1+I_flchar/I_p )(1+I_flcont/I_p ) in order to get those intensity I_p, which is excited only by the primary electrons. I_flchar and I_flcont mean the calculated characteristic and continuums fluorescence intensities. In order to get the intensity of fluorescence radiation, the absorption of the exciting radiation in the specimen, the photoionization probability and the self-absorption of the emitted line must be calculated. The critical quantity is the X-ray yield of the exciting atoms in case of fluorescence by characteristic radiation and the bremsstrahlung yield of the specimen in case of continuum fluorescence. In the former case it is reasonable to apply the same physical model to calculate I_flchar and I_p. KW - EPMA KW - Secondary fluorescence correction KW - Uncertainties KW - Microanalysis PY - 2019 UR - https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/microscopy-and-microanalysis/article/uncertainties-in-secondary-fluorescence-correction-in-epma/AA92E973D350A74C574067AAFB2D9044 DO - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927619012534 SN - 1431-9276 SN - 1435-8115 VL - 25 IS - Suppl. 2 SP - 2360 EP - 2361 PB - Cambridge University Press AN - OPUS4-48863 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -