The approaching revolution in X-ray microanalysis. The microcalorimeter energy dispersive spectrometer

A high-resolution energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) based on cryogenic microcalorimeter X-ray detectors has been developed for use in X-ray microanalysis. With an energy resolution of 3 eV at 1.5 keV, count rate of ∼500 s-1, and an effective collection area of ∼5 mm2 (using polycapillary X-ray optics), the microcalorimeter EDS combines many of the favorable qualities of commercially-available wavelength dispersive spectrometers (WDS) and semiconductor EDS. After describing the spectrometer system, we present several applications of microcalorimeter EDS to important microanalysis problems. (author)