Here's a cool feature that I implemented recently in CalcImage. It's called correlated pixel quantification (CPQ) and the idea is that instead of using the point intensities of standards acquired in the PFE MDB file, one instead acquires standard intensities as x-ray maps, exactly the same as the unknown maps.
Of course one can acquire the standard x-ray maps with different beam currents or pixel dwell times since the program will normalize for those parameters, but depending on what one is trying to correct for this may or may not be desired.
This method was developed for Philippe Pinard and Silvia Richter at Aachen for beam line scans of carbon in steel where the buildup of carbon around the point of acquisition causes the "baseline" of carbon to vary considerably over the length of a beam line scan as seen here:
http://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=48.msg160#msg160The idea is that if one acquires the carbon background as an x-ray map with the same acquisition parameters as the unknown x-ray map, the carbon "baseline" variation will be normalized out. Of course there are many other parameters that will affect the rate of carbon buildup such as thermal conductivity and specimen vacuum, but it seems worth trying.
In fact, one can use a mix of MDB standard intensities and simply replace selected standard intensities as required with x-ray maps on standards for on-peak, background or interference standard intensities.
I decided to test this method by acquiring a low mag beam scan map on a pyrite grain and also x-ray maps with the same parameters on the standard to "normalize" out the effects of Bragg defocusing. As one can see from the attached maps it works quite well although the imprecision in areas where the Bragg defocusing is severe, shows slightly greater errors.
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