ABSTRACT
For surfaces, interfaces, and thin films, there is often little material to analyze-hence the need for many microanalytical methods such as those hsted in Table 1. Within microanalysis, it is often necessary to identify trace components down to extremely low concentrations (parts per trillion in some cases), and a number of techniques specialize in this aspect. In other cases, a high degree of accuracy in measuring the presence of major components may be of interest. Usually, the techniques that are good for trace identification do not accurately quantify major components: Most complete analyses require the use of multiple techniques, the selection of which depends on the nature of the specimen and the desired information.
