X-ray microanalysis with EDX spectrometers

The active area of the detector is usually between 10 and 30 mm. The collection angle is maximized by placing the detector window as close to the specimen as possible in the limited space available in the gap of the objective lens pole piece. Even so, the collection angle is a small fraction of the solid angle of 4ir steradian over which the x-rays are generated. 

The detection and elimination of spurious effects and the optimization of the electron microscope necessary before quantitative x-ray microanal- 

2 Interpretation and quantification of x-ray data from thin specimens. After having acquired the x-ray spectrum, it is necessary to subtract the background bremsstrahlung to obtain the relative intensities of the characteristic x-ray peaks, from which the concentrations of the different kinds of atom in the specimen are determined. The steps involved in doing this will be considered briefly in this section. 

Ata and Atb are not equal because of the diflerent atomic numbers of the atoms, but they can be combined into a single constant Atab by writing these equations as 

known as the Cliflf-Lorimer factor (Cliff and Lorimer 1975), contains all the factors needed to correct for the atomic number difference. 

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