Universal correction procedure for electron-probe microanalysis. I. Measurement of X-ray depth distributions in solids

Abstract

X-ray distributions in aluminium, gold and carbon have been measured using the tracer technique. The results have been compared with calculations using the simplified Monte Carlo method of Love et al. (1977). It is concluded that the Monte Carlo model predicts too high a peak to the X-ray distribution and that the discrepancy is worse at lower overvoltage ratios. Calculated surface ionisation functions Phi (0) are, however, closer to experimental values and the general shape of the Phi ( rho z) curve is considered satisfactory. The more rigorous model of Myklebust et al. (1976) also overestimates the height of the peak in the Phi ( rho z) curve and, whilst it performs rather better than the simplified model for gold, it gives even more unrealistic data on carbon.