METHOD OF MATERIAL ANALYSIS BY MEANS OF A FOCUSED ELECTRON BEAM USING CHARACTERISTIC X-RAYS AND BACK-SCATTERED ELECTRONS AND THE EQUIPMENT TO PERFORM IT

摘要

A material analysis method by a focused electron beam and an equipment for performing such an analysis where an electron map B is created describing the intensity of emitted back-scattered electrons at various points on a sample, and a spectral map S is created describing the intensity of emitted X-rays at points on the sample depending on the radiation energy. For selected chemical elements, X-ray maps Mi are created representing the intensity of X-rays characteristic for such elements. The X-ray maps Mi and the electron map B are converted into differential X-ray maps Di, which are subsequently merged into a final differential X-ray map D. The final differential X-ray map D is then used to search particles. Subsequently, a cumulative X-ray spectrum Xj is calculated for each particle and subsequently the classification of particles based on the peak intensities and the intensity of back-scattered electron is performed.