All,
I've started this topic in order to share our most useful and interesting ideas and resources for teaching EPMA to students. I hope students will chime in as well to tell us what they deem most effective also!
I'll start by a small example of something that I have found to be valuable in teaching students the difference between the emission energy and the edge energy.
I usually start by turning off the automatic peak ID in the EDS software and acquiring a number of spectra of pure metals at 20 keV. Then I get the students to identify the peaks and all families (K, L and M), if they are visible, to confirm the ID.
Finally I go to Mo metal and acquire a spectra and ask them to identify it and they usually do as seen here:
Then I ask: but why don't we see the Mo Ka line? Usually some bright young person finally speaks up and asks what the critical excitation energy is for Mo Ka and yes, lo and behold, it is just over 20 keV!
Then I have to explain why Thermo NSS still shows the peak marker for Mo Ka when the beam energy is 20 keV!
Not to worry, Bruker Esprit also shows the Mo Ka lines when at 20 keV as seen here:
At least Thermo and Bruker should draw these "non-excited" KLM markers using dotted lines or something- don't you think?
Anyway, if anyone is interested, my EPMA class notes and PPT files are here:
http://epmalab.uoregon.edu/lecture.htmand I'd be pleased if others who teach a similar course would share their tips and resources also in this topic!