Electron Probe Microanalysis of Insulating Materials: Quantification Problems and Some Possible Solutions

The simple fact that electrical neutrality cannot be quickly restored in insulators submitted to electron bombardment leads to a change of the parameters of electron–specimen interaction [distortion of the ϕ(ρz) function] and to possible modifications of the composition of the specimen (mobile ion migration and desorption of species). The correlation between these macroscopic effects and their microscopic causes is the main subject of this paper. From physical arguments, the difficulties of dealing with ab initio Monte Carlo simulations are established and some strategies for reducing these spurious effects or dealing with them are deduced. In particular, an analytical model for the distortion of the ϕ(ρz) function is proposed for the first time.