THE MONTE-CARLO-LIBRARY LEAST-SQUARES APPROACH FOR ENERGY-DISPERSIVE X-RAY-FLUORESCENCE ANALYSIS

A new analysis principle called Monte Carlo-Library Least-Squares (MCLLS) approach has been identified and investigated for quantitative energy dispersive x-ray fluorescence analyses. The feasibility of the MCLLS principle has been investigated with a radioisotope source excited EDXRF analytical system for several standard samples of known composition. With good initial elemental composition guesses, the MCLLS results showed excellent agreement with the elemental compositions in the standard samples. Furthermore, by taking the ratio of the photoelectric peak counts in the sample experimental spectra as approximate initial guesses, the proposed iterative MCLLS algorithm works quite well, converging to the correct elemental compositions. Only one iteration was needed for the analysis of all major elements. For trace elements a second iteration was needed in some cases. Other possible applications of the MCLLS approach and future work are also discussed.