New experimental equipment for grazing-exit electron-probe microanalysis

New grazing-exit electron-probe microanalysis (GE-EPMA) equipment is developed. In GE-EPMA, characteristic x rays are measured at the grazing-exit angle. X rays emitted from deep positions in the substrate are reduced under grazing-exit conditions; therefore, surface-sensitive analysis is possible with low background. In previous equipments, the sample holder was tilted to change the exit angle. In this new equipment, the energy-dispersive x-ray detector is moved to change the exit angle, and the analyzed position is stable even if the exit angle is changed. Therefore, this equipment is useful especially for particle analysis. The new GE-EPMA equipment is applied to Pd-Se-Te single-particle analysis. Although it was difficult to measure the Se Kα line at an exit angle of 45° due to the large Au Lβ radiation emitted from the Au substrate, SeKa was measured without any Au signals at the grazing-exit angle near zero.