Getting the concentration from Scanning Electron Microscope

physicsjn

Greetings!

I am doing particle analysis using a JEOL 5310 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Typically, people here in the lab report the results in % Element or % Atomic. I think the former refers to the weight percentage of an element and the latter to the stoichiometric ratio of elements with each other. Anyway, is there a way to get the concentration of the element of the particle in terms of ppm (parts per million)?

Also, what to the fields in the EDX output mean? The Apparent conc., stat. sigma, k ratio, k ratio sigma, Inten. Corrn., Std. Corrn.?

Here is an example output of an Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis:
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SEMQuant results. Listed at 6:37:31 PM on 10/3/12
Operator: Oxford
Client: All ISIS users
Job: Demonstration data SiLi detector
Spectrum label:

Calibration data: Energy Resn. Area
Strobe: -8.8 49.21 90606
Calib. element: 6915.1 140.83 37196
Gain factor = 49.989
Livetime = 100.0 seconds

Sample data: Energy Resn. Area
Strobe: -7.4 53.64 54030
Total spectrum counts = 5342
Livetime = 56.2 seconds

System resolution = 70 eV

Geometry (degrees):
Tilt = 0.00

ED geometry (degrees):
Elevation = 45.00
Azimuth = 0.00
Entry angle = 0.00

Accelerating voltage = 20.00 kV

Quantitative method: ZAF ( 4 iterations).
Analysed all elements and normalised results.

Standards :
C K CaCO3 01/12/93
Cl K KCl 15/02/94
Ca K Wollas 23/11/93
V K V 01/12/93
Co K Co 01/12/93
Br K KBr 07/12/93
Zr L Zr 01/12/93
Au M Au 01/12/93
Hg M HgTe 01/12/93


Elmt Spect. Apparent Stat. k Ratio k Ratio
Type Conc. Sigma Sigma
C K ED 12.754 0.297 1.06280 0.02478
Cl K ED 0.040* 0.032 0.00084* 0.00067
Ca K ED 0.068* 0.044 0.00199* 0.00129
V K ED 0.006* 0.048 0.00006* 0.00048
Co K ED 0.030* 0.074 0.00030* 0.00074
Br K ED 0.060* 0.461 0.00089* 0.00687
Zr L ED 0.113* 0.150 0.00113* 0.00150
Au M ED 2.021 0.177 0.02021 0.00177
Hg M ED 0.128* 0.226 0.00210* 0.00370

Elmt Spect. Inten. Std Element Sigma Atomic
Type Corrn. Corrn. % % %
C K ED 1.093 1.46 80.20 3.66 98.10
Cl K ED 0.847 1.02 0.33* 0.26 0.13*
Ca K ED 1.028 1.00 0.46* 0.29 0.17*
V K ED 0.872 1.00 0.05* 0.38 0.01*
Co K ED 0.880 1.00 0.23* 0.58 0.06*
Br K ED 0.853 1.00 0.48* 3.70 0.09*
Zr L ED 0.895 1.05 0.87* 1.14 0.14*
Au M ED 0.844 1.05 16.44 1.43 1.23
Hg M ED 0.929 1.05 0.95* 1.65 0.07*
Total 100.00 100.00

* = <2 Sigma

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Thank you very much for your help.