Point Analysis using PfE

[Michael Lance]

Hello,

I need to measure 1-3 micron carbides in various alloys but my 20-year old JEOL 8200 doesn't have the reproducibility to precisely return to tiny particles thereby eliminating the possibility of automated point analysis.

Should I first collect my standards using Automate! and then manually collect each carbide by centering on the particle and then use Start Standard or Unknown Acquisition in Acquire!? I presume that as long as I have an unknown as my current sample, then it will only collect one unknown acquisition and not the standards again.

For each data point, will PfE add a sequential number to the unknown sample name? I will need to collect at least 10 measurements on each alloy.

Can PfE also acquire an SEM image at each point or will I need to do that manually?

Is there some simpler way to do this?

Thanks,

Michael

[Anette von der Handt]

Hello,

I need to measure 1-3 micron carbides in various alloys but my 20-year old JEOL 8200 doesn't have the reproducibility to precisely return to tiny particles thereby eliminating the possibility of automated point analysis.

Should I first collect my standards using Automate! and then manually collect each carbide by centering on the particle and then use Start Standard or Unknown Acquisition in Acquire!? I presume that as long as I have an unknown as my current sample, then it will only collect one unknown acquisition and not the standards again.

Yes. If you use the "Start Standard or Unknown Acquisition" in Acquire!, it will only collect one acquisition. The type of acquisition (unknown or standard) depends on what the current "unknown" is, you can see that in the Acquire! dialog, middle left it is noted. Acquire! -> "New Sample/Setup", let's you create and therefore switch between the different types of set-ups (you can select between unknown, standard and wavescan).

You keep adding to the same "unknown" each time you hit the "Start Standard or ..." button (after repositioning your points of course) when doing repeat analysis. If you want to start a new unknown entry (because you go from one sample to another or really any time you want to change the name), you make one in "New Sample/Setup".

For each data point, will PfE add a sequential number to the unknown sample name? I will need to collect at least 10 measurements on each alloy.

Yes, each data point gets a unique database entry.

Can PfE also acquire an SEM image at each point or will I need to do that manually?

You can do it manually in the Acquire! window under "Image" or you can go to "Acquisition options" (also in Acquire!) and select to acquire an image before or after acquisition each time. PFE uses the magnification that you had set in "Analytical conditions", there is an imaging magnification that can be specified.

Is there some simpler way to do this?

No, not if you don't have the stage reproducibility.

I hope this helps. In general, as you would also get more rapid answers, I would also recommend checking the quick start manual or using the help. A great function that sometimes is forgotten or not known is that if you hit "F1" it will get you to the correct section in the help for where the computer mouse hovered over.

[Probeman]

Perhaps the easiest method to acquire high spatial resolution points in PFE when your stage hardware is problematic is to utilize the beam deflection feature from the Acquire! window to manually acquire the points.  The only caveat is that you want to avoid deflecting the beam by more than 20 um or so from the beam center position to avoid WDS Bragg defocusing.

Basically one simply acquires an image of the area of interest using the Imaging button in the Acquire! window. Then save the image, then click the Beam Deflection button, then click on the image to deflect the beam to the desired point of interest. Then just click the Start Standard or Unknown Acquisition button to start the quant acquisition.

To acquire more points to the current sample, just repeat deflecting the beam on the current image, and starting another acquisition.

The cool thing about this method is that you aren't limited to the resolution of the stage, since the beam deflection has much higher spatial resolution.  And as always one can display the acquired points on the image as seen here:

https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=246.msg1174#msg1174

Note that link is an old post, so click the refresh button on your browser if the in-line images don't display properly.