1) Would it be possible to have another function where I can first include/exclude elements and then get a list of the filtered standards with their Z? Seems to me just like a combination of what is already available in the program..
2) In standard.exe, I can check for nominal interferences in a given standard composition. However, I cannot choose to specify an element which is not in the element list of the standard. It would be great if I could just choose random elements to quickly verify that I do not have a peak interference in my MAN standard.
I understand #2 well enough. Remember though, the nominal interference calculation assumes Gaussian overlaps and so is not very accurate.
The best practice in my mind is to simply acquire all analyzed elements in all standards (the default non quick standards), and then analyze them (as if they are unknowns from the Analyze! window) and see if anything shows up that shouldn't be there.
Actually even easier is to simply unselect any standard intensities that plot above the general MAN curve trend. After all, background is *by definition* the lowest intensity one can measure, so if the std intensity point is above the trend, it's either a contamination or an interference and you really don't care which it is- just deselect it from the fit.
This certainly works well but in terms of efficiency (time=money) I rather would like to not spend time acquiring data I ultimately will not use. Just having access in this dialogue to the list of nominal interferences would serve as a nice guideline to weed out the obvious non-candidates.
As for #1, maybe you should provide an example of what you mean.
Let's say some user wants to map some multi-phase material with a wider spread of mean Z for various major and minor elements, in total 10 elements. And our metal standard block is in a somewhat rough shape
, the user does not know our various standards by heart and I, microprobe mastress, am not around. And time is money again (see above).
Right now standard.exe allows me (1) to look up standards that contain a certain element (Find..) or (2) to list all standard names and average Z and. I just thought having the option to combine (1) and (2) in one output or - for the purpose of MAN backgrounds - exclude (rather than find) standards containing a certain element(s) and then list their name and Z.
However, I am aware that I could probably create an excel spreadsheet that would contain this kind of information, so overall this function would be a "nice to have".
Thanks!