Electron Microprobe Laboratory
Cameca SX-100 Instrumentation

This should be useful to those of you who want to include a description of the probe in papers or proposals.

The Cameca SX-100 microprobe at New Mexico Tech is equipped with 3 wavelength dispersive (WD) spectrometers, plus secondary electron and high-speed backscattered electron detectors. The Cameca is controlled by the PC-based "Peaksight" software, and is internet-connected for efficient data and image transfer. The WD spectrometers are each outfitted with multiple analyzing crystals, two in each spectrometer. One spectrometer equipped with extra-large crystals and a high-pressure detector that produce count rates up to 4 times higher than the standard crystals, allowing more precise analysis of elements present in low abundances. Crystals include two standard TAP, a large and small LIF, and a large and small PET.  The WDS spectrometers can be used to conduct quantitative analyses on individually selected points, traverses, and point grids. High resolution backscattered, secondary electron, and x-ray map images can be acquired with the probe and further processed to improve image quality.  These images can be saved as TIF or JPG files and transferred to user's computers for further image processing, incorporation into papers, or use in oral presentation.