AN ACCURATE COMPUTER CORRECTION PROGRAM FOR QUANTITATIVE ELECTRON-PROBE MICROANALYSIS

The aim of this paper is to present a practical and accurate program of correction based on a new mathematical description of phi(rhoz), which allows a global correction combining atomic number and absorption correction [ZA]. Characteristic and continuum fluorescence corrections are also included to complete the program. Elements of atomic number in the range 4 < Z < 92 and X-ray emission lines Kalpha, Kbeta, Lalpha, Lbeta, Malpha and Mbeta are taken into account by the program which is especially designed for difficult cases (light elements, low overvoltages, low accelerating voltages). This correction program written in Fortran is designed to work off line under DOS or WINDOWS graphic operating systems on PC compatible microcomputers. The WINDOWS user interface environment makes the software easy to use. The computation and plot of phi(rhoz) depth distribution function as well as the printing of physical parameters enable the user to easily optimize the experimental conditions. This procedure has been tested on various databases (Pouchou and Pichoir, Love et al. and Bastin et al.) for medium to heavy elements. For the light elements (0, C and B) Bastin's database has been used. The results presented furthermore reveal the good accuracy of the method and allow a comparison with other correction procedures.