Assessment of Philibert's absorption correction models in electron-probe microanalysis

Abstract

The values of the constants in the expression for h and sigma , employed in the full and simple Philibert absorption correction procedures, have been optimized by making use of extensive experimental microanalysis data on binary systems. New values are proposed which differ substantially from previously accepted constants and which, for most systems, improve the accuracy of these absorption corrections. However, both Philibert models are still inadequate when applied to soft X-ray measurements. Based upon the present findings, some comments are made with reference to methods of averaging h for multicomponent systems and also to atomic number corrections.