Standards-Based Quantification in DTSA-II—Part I

Abstract

Quantifying an X-ray spectrum is the process of converting a measured spectrum into an estimate of the composition of the material from which the spectrum was collected. In a certain sense, interpreting X-ray spectra is very simple. A spectrum from even the most complex material can be thought of as a sum of spectra from the constituent elements (see Figure 1). To first approximation, if you know the spectrum for the constituent pure elements, you can estimate the spectrum for the complex material. Regardless of the software vendor or the name of the algorithm, this is the basis for quantification of all X-ray spectra.