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Electron Probe Microanalysis: A Review of the Past, Present, and Future

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2015

Romano Rinaldi  and
Xavier Llovet
Romano Rinaldi*
Affiliation:
ex Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra (now Physics and Geology), Università di Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy
Xavier Llovet
Affiliation:
Scientific and Technological Centers (CCiTUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Lluís Solé Sabarís 1-3, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
*
*Corresponding author. [email protected]
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Abstract

The 50th anniversary of the application of electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) to the Earth Sciences provides an opportunity for an assessment of the state-of-the-art of the technique. Stemming from the introduction of the first automated instruments, the latest developments of EPMA and some typical applications are reviewed with an eye to the future. The most noticeable recent technical achievements such as the field-emission electron gun, the latest generation of energy and wavelength dispersive spectrometers, and the development of analytical methods based on new sets of first principle data obtained by the use of sophisticated computer codes, allow for the extension of the method to the analysis of trace elements, ultra-light elements (down to Li), small particles, and thin films, with a high degree of accuracy and precision and within a considerably reduced volume of interaction. A number of working examples and a thorough list of references provide the reader with a working knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of EPMA today.

Keywords

electron probe microanalysisX-ray spectrometrylatest developmentscapabilities and limitationsfuture developments
Type
EMAS Special Issue
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 21 , Issue 5 , October 2015 , pp. 1053 - 1069
Copyright
© Microscopy Society of America 2015 

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