Investigation of carbonaceous insulating films by electron beam X-ray microanalysis

Abstract

Quantitative investigations of insulators by electron beam X-ray microanalysis are normally only possible using special preparation techniques for the samples. Samples were coated by evaporation with thin carbon films, but the analysis will fail if the samples themselves contain carbon. Two ways are proposed for solving this problem. Samples and reference samples with similar composition were initially coated by evaporation with carbon. The k-ratios necessary for the determination of element concentrations were calculated either experimentally by relation of the intensities to those of carbon standards or by computer calculation of the film thicknesses using the k-ratios of reference samples. By means of this calculation it was possible to correct the usually measured k-ratios or intensities of samples via modified depth distribution functions.