A new-high speed simulation method for electron beam microanalysis

The BSE, SE, x-ray signals produced from a bulk specimen have been successfully studied with a high degree of accuracy by the Monte Carlo technique. However, such procedure takes considerable computing time since any change of experimental parameters requires a fresh computation. This thesis describes an alternative approach that permits the BSE, SE yield and EDS spectrum of a given structure to be computed within a fraction of a second. The procedure used is called the diffusion matrix model. At first, a Monte Carlo simulation is described in detail in the thesis. The diffusion matrix method is then developed by a simple Monte Carlo computation, and used to collect the yield of BSE, SE signal and the intensity of bremsstrahlung and characteristic x-rays. At last, the BSE, SE, and x-ray signals from a surface of a given geometry can be found by simple summation of the matrix, and the results of any change in the geometry can be determined immediately without the need of a new set of a Monte Carlo simulation. The agreement of the theoretical and experimental results indicates the practical approach of the diffusion matrix model. Such a procedure has the advantage of its application to the microparticles, arbitrary topography, heterogeneous sample, and multi-layer specimens.