STANDARDLESS ELECTRON-PROBE X-RAY-ANALYSIS OF NONBIOLOGICAL SAMPLES

The fundamental aspects of standardless analysis are treated. Calculat ion of the standard intensity also must include the effect of nonradia tive transitions. Uncertainties in the available atomic data are consi derable, leaving room for empirical adjustments to experimental data. The atomic data of relevance are subshell fluorescence yields, relativ e transition probabilities, ionization cross sections, Coster-Kronig t ransition rates, and mass absorption coefficients. Determination of th e mass thickness in thin-film analysis is still a problem, in spite of the existence of several methods. It is only possible to attain good accuracy with standardless analysis if the detection efficiency is pro perly determined and regularly checked. For the L lines, additional em pirical adjustment is also needed for reaching a similar level of accu racy as with the K lines. For the M lines, the set of atomic data is i ncomplete and the available data tables also contain values which are in significant error.