What we really need are some tertiary (or more) empirical k-ratio measurement files. Binary compositions are great but they don't account for some effects. Also the Pouchou k-ratio database was carefully selected to avoid fluorescence effects, since no one at that time felt we were dealing properly with fluorescence in the matrix corrections.
My "XTREME" k-ratio database proposal from several years ago is here in case anyone is interested:
https://probesoftware.com/smf/index.php?topic=115.0
I thought I would take a minute to explain how a database of k-ratios with more than two elements can be handled in CalcZAF. The idea being that we acquire intensities in Probe for EPMA (or any application really), on known standards, and then compare our measured k-ratios to the k-ratios calculated from our matrix corrections.
To do this, first acquire intensities on pairs of primary standards and secondary standards just as one would for a normal probe run. Then from the Probe for EPMA | Output menu, export the standard k-ratios and composition information as seen here:
![](https://probesoftware.com/smf/gallery/395_31_10_19_10_01_35.png)
This so called "standard" k-ratio output was developed by Paul Carpenter and I some years ago, and is described in the Probe for EPMA Reference manual as seen here:
![](https://probesoftware.com/smf/gallery/395_31_10_19_10_01_51.png)
Then from the CalcZAF application, open this output file using this menu:
![](https://probesoftware.com/smf/gallery/395_31_10_19_10_02_06.png)
The error distribution results for each element in each standard matrix will be calculated output to a .out file which can opened in Excel as seen here:
![](https://probesoftware.com/smf/gallery/395_31_10_19_10_02_20.png)
The idea being that we can have any number of elements measured in our standards, not just binary compositions.