New Features In Probe for EPMA

[Probeman]

I just wanted to share this.

The new wavescan plotting routines are pretty nice for complicated backgrounds.  Here I've acquired wavescans on multiple standards for a trace zircon run:



Plotting the Th spectrometer scans, note that I moved the high side off-peak to avoid a secondary peak in UO2:



Here is a situation for U Ma where I decided to avoid extrapolating across the Ar detector absorption edge and utilized "same-side" off-peaks:



This new feature really helps to sort out these complex situations.
john

PS The plot/output window for standards and unknowns is now in the Output menu, but please note that the User Specified Format output menu is probably the way to go from now on if you wan to export to a file.

[Probeman]

In concert with the new release of v. 11.0.6 which contains additional x-ray lines for acquisition and quantification, here is a list of all x-ray and MAC files and what they are for.

XLINE.DAT        X-ray emission line energies for Ka, Kb, La, Lb, Ma, Mb
XLINE2.DAT       X-ray emission line energies for Ln, Lg, Lv, Ll, Mg, Mz

XFLUR.DAT        X-ray fluorescent yields for Ka, Kb, La, Lb, Ma, Mb
XFLUR2.DAT       X-ray fluorescent yields for Ln, Lg, Lv, Ll, Mg, Mz

XEDGE.DAT        X-ray shell edge energies for all K, L and M edges

FFAST.DAT        MAC table for all emitter/absorber binaries for Ka, Kb, La, Lb, Ma, Mb
FFAST2.DAT       MAC table for all emitter/absorber binaries for Ln, Lg, Lv, Ll, Mg, Mz

Note also these additional files that are now distributed:

XLINE.TXT        All zeros text file for updating x-ray emission energy file XLINE.DAT for Ka, Kb, La, Lb, Ma, Mb (see CalcZAF.exe)
XLINE2.TXT       All zeros text file for updating x-ray emission energy file XLINE2.DAT for Ln, Lg, Lv, Ll, Mg, Mz (see CalcZAF.exe)

XFLUR.TXT        All zeros text file for updating x-ray fluorescent yield file XFLUR.DAT for Ka, Kb, La, Lb, Ma, Mb (see CalcZAF.exe)
XFLUR2.TXT       All zeros text file for updating x-ray fluorescent yield file XFLUR2.DAT for Ln, Lg, Lv, Ll, Mg, Mz (see CalcZAF.exe)

XEDGE.TXT        All zeros text file for updating x-ray shell edge energies file XEDGE.DAT for K, L-I, L-II, L-III, M-I, M-II, M-III, M-IV, M-V (see CalcZAF.exe)

[John Donovan]

Latest version of PFE v. 11.06 supports these additional x-ray lines in all acquisition and quant:

[John Donovan]

Gareth Seward has implemented new graphics for our EDS spectrum display along with some cool new KLM markers.

The new KLM markers are "dynamic" in the sense that the x-ray line text isn't loaded unless the marker height is more than 10% of the display height.  For example, here is a MgO spectrum with the KLM markers for Mg:



Note that only the highest KLM markers are labeled with the x-ray line text. And here is the same plot zoomed in a little more:



I think the new markers are much better looking and we don't get all that KLM "hash" at the bottom of the screen as seen here in these plots of NIST K-411 mineral glass:





The next idea is to add an "absorption correction" to the KLM markers to reflect the predicted intensities!

[John Donovan]

I just added the ability to automatically run an final set of standards from the Probe for EPMA Automate! window after the Probe Image automated map acquisitions all complete, as seen here:



So with the latest version of PFE once can now fire off and run the following automation actions with a single mouse click:

1. Confirm standard, unknown and/or wavescan positions

2. Acquire Standard, unknown and/or wavescan samples

3. Re-run the standards again for the standard intensity drift correction of the point analyses

4. Run Probe Image for automated x-ray mapping

5. Re-run the standards again  for the standard intensity drift correction of the x-ray maps

Pretty cool if I do say so myself!

[John Donovan]

I just added the ability to automatically run an final set of standards from the Probe for EPMA Automate! window after the Probe Image automated map acquisitions all complete, as seen here:



So with the latest version of PFE once can now fire off and run the following automation actions with a single mouse click:

1. Confirm standard, unknown and/or wavescan positions

2. Acquire Standard, unknown and/or wavescan samples

3. Re-run the standards again for the standard intensity drift correction of the point analyses

4. Run Probe Image for automated x-ray mapping

5. Re-run the standards again  for the standard intensity drift correction of the x-ray maps

Pretty cool if I do say so myself!

I want to just say again that if someone with a JEOL instrument could perform a x-ray map stage scan in Probe Image using the following directions I could implement standard intensity drift correction code that would cover the JEOL "anti-cartesian" stage scan method.

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=41.msg3614#msg3614

So here's the test acquisition protocol if you are interested:

1. Create a sample setup in Probe for EPMA with 3 to 5 elements (or more if you want to do a two pass acquisition with more than one element per spectrometer). Karsten has excellent documentation for this here:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=106.0

2. Acquire your primary and MAN standards in PFE. They are automatically saved to your MDB file. Hopefully you turned off the lab air conditioner before you started so the lab temperature change is causing significantly drift in the x-ray intensities over time!

3. Acquire a stage scan using this setup in Probe Image.  Please name the scan sample "JEOL Stage scan...". The x-ray map PrbImg files are automatically saved. 

4. Now acquire the primary and MAN standards in Probe for EPMA *again*, for the drift correction.  Now you can turn your air conditioner back on!

5. Finally zip up your MDB and PrbImg files and send them to me.

[John Donovan]

Those with a good eye may have noticed that I've replaced all the old "spin" button controls with Microsoft's new "UpDown" controls as seen here:



It might seem like a small thing, but the new control has a much better "click feel" than the old control, particularly when connected to the instrument and the driver is being accessed...

[John Donovan]

The latest v. 11.x of Probe for EPMA has many new and improved features (the current version is 11.1.5).  If you already have v. 11.x, simply use the PFE Help | Update Probe for EPMA menu to get updated.

If you have v. 10.x (or earlier) of PFE you will have to download both the latest CalcZAF.msi and ProbeForEPMA.msi installers (contact us if you need any help with the process) and perform the upgrade manually.  Please refer to this post for more detailed instructions:

http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=40.msg138#msg138

[John Donovan]

New scan graphics in the peaking/PHA scan graphics window starting in v. 11.1.6:



This should fix the problems reported with Windows 8 and "locked down" IT versions of Windows 7.  And I think it looks very nice too.   

[Probeman]

Many new Penepma Mont-Carlo binaries for fas alpha factor matrix corrections have been added to the current matrix.mdb k-ratio database, including 32 new actinide binaries and 11 new REE binaries...

The complete list of binaries now available is available here:

http://www.probesoftware.com/download/Calculated%20Matrix%20Binaries.txt

[Probeman]

Here's a small but cute feature requested by the students in this term's EPMA class taught by Julie Chouinard:

[Malcolm Roberts]

Hi John
on Automate! there is a little box that states "use filament standby afterwards". I am sure it used to say something about closing the FEG? Probewin.ini states that the standby mode is not available for FEG, however closing the gun valve would be good as, in the case of the 8530F, the manufacturer recommend a standby state of 10kv and that valve closed. Anyway this might be done?
Cheers,
malc.

[John Donovan]

Hi John
on Automate! there is a little box that states "use filament standby afterwards". I am sure it used to say something about closing the FEG? Probewin.ini states that the standby mode is not available for FEG, however closing the gun valve would be good as, in the case of the 8530F, the manufacturer recommend a standby state of 10kv and that valve closed. Anyway this might be done?
Cheers,
malc.

Hi Malcolm,
The lowering of the keV after the automation finishes is possible- see the user reference manual regarding the FilamentStandbyType keyword in the Probewin.ini file.

As for the closing of the gun valve, Philippe Pinard has asked about that as well, so I've asked JEOL about adding that call to their API, but so far they have said it is "not possible".

You JEOL 8530 users might want to ask them again...

[Malcolm Roberts]

Hi John
I'll get the word out at this end. If the instrument is supposed to stand by in a certain config, then it should be possible for them to fix this.
Cheers,
malc.

[John Donovan]

New plot graphics for std/unkns and digitized polygon areas: