Assembly and reliability of an X-ray microanalyser system with a possibility for independent mass measurement.

A new X-ray microanalyser assembly is described, the main parts of which are a JEOL 100 B transmission electron microscope, a JEOL ASID I scanning attachment, an EDAX 183 B semiconductor detector and a KFKI ICA 70 4k multichannel analyser. By using this equipment, qualitative analysis, equivalent to the original EDAX version, can be performed. Furthermore it is possible to visualize simultaneously the spatial distribution of two or more elements in the sample. The mass of the excited volume of the sample can be determined, independently of the X-ray measurements, by using the electron detector of the scanning attachment. The reproducibility of such measurements is demonstrated and a calibration curve is given. By recording the excited mass of the sample during the X-ray analysis, the damage caused by the exciting electron beam was also examined.