The Electron Probe Microanalyzer: Its Theory and Applications

The electron probe microanalyzer, made practical by Castaing, is a unique instrument which permits the qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis of samples as small as one micron in diameter. This is accomplished by using the specimen as a target for a focused high energy electron beam and measuring the characteristic X-rays excited. The instrument at General Motors Research Laboratories has been applied to a variety of metallurgical and automotive material problems such as the identification of deleterious inclusions in zinc alloys and steel, grain boundary precipitates, corrosion of anodized aluminum, the wetting of steel by solder, and many others.