Feasibility of X-ray fluorescence imaging in a SEM using pinhole relay optics

The feasibility of imaging by X-ray fluorescence in a SEM has been tested on a simple laboratory set-up. It has been demonstrated that images generated by the fluorescent X-rays can be directly obtained with the use of simple pinhole relay optics and an incident X-ray beam created in a SEM. These images were acquired with a charge coupled device (CCD) camera coupled to a phosphor screen by a fibre-optic faceplate. This technique provides chemical and topographical images with a spatial resolution in the object plane of a few micrometres. This “global” imaging has the advantage that the acquisition time is only a few minutes for a sample surface of a few mm2