Some theoretical considerations on X-ray microanalysis in the environmental or variable pressure scanning electron microscope

This paper presents a new correction procedure for quantitative x-ray microanalysis in the environmental or variable pressure scanning electron microscope (SEM). This method is based on a plot of the measured intensity as a function of the fraction of nonscattered beam intensity, f_p. The theory predicts that the plot should be linear and the corrected intensity is given for f_p = 1. The advantage is that such a plot is valid for any measured pressures, which is not the case with the usual pressure correction methods. To use this method, a simple equation is derived to compute f_p. Other variations of this correction procedure are also presented. Comparison with measurements performed by Mansfield (1999) show the great consistency of this method.