AN ACCURATE COMPUTER CORRECTION PROGRAM FOR QUANTITATIVE ELECTRON-PROBE MICROANALYSIS

The aim of this paper is to present a practical and accurate program o f correction based on a new mathematical description of phi(rhoz), whi ch allows a global correction combining atomic number and absorption c orrection [ZA]. Characteristic and continuum fluorescence corrections are also included to complete the program. Elements of atomic number i n 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 i s especially designed for difficult cases (light elements, low overvol tages, low accelerating voltages). This correction program written in Fortran is designed to work off line under DOS or WINDOWS graphic oper ating systems on PC compatible microcomputers. The WINDOWS user interf ace environment makes the software easy to use. The computation and pl ot of phi(rhoz) depth distribution function as well as the printing of physical parameters enable the user to easily optimize the experiment al conditions. This procedure has been tested on various databases (Po uchou 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 be en used. The results presented furthermore reveal the good accuracy of the method and allow a comparison with other correction procedures.