ABSTRACT
It has been stressed in Chapter 2 that whenever electrons with several kilo electron volts of energy strike a solid specimen, X-rays characteristic of the atoms present in the specimen are produced. In discussing the formation of images in the TEM and SEM we have largely ignored these X-rays. However, to do so is to discard a great deal of information about the composition of the specimen. This was realized in the 1950s and since then increasing use has been made of all types of electron microscopes for micro analysis. This term implies that an analysis can be performed on a very small amount of material, or, more usually, a very small part of a larger specimen. As conventional chemical or spectrographic methods of analysis cannot do this, microanalysis in the electron microscope has become an important tool for characterizing all types of solid material.
