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Application of the parametric bootstrap method to determine statistical errors in quantitative X‐ray microanalysis of thin films
Author(s) -
ARMIGLIATO ALDO,
BALBONI ROBERTO,
ROSA RODOLFO
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.2007.01817.x
Subject(s) - homogeneity (statistics) , microanalysis , monte carlo method , parametric statistics , range (aeronautics) , binary number , statistics , accuracy and precision , analytical chemistry (journal) , materials science , mathematics , computational physics , chemistry , physics , chromatography , arithmetic , organic chemistry , composite material
Summary We applied the parametric bootstrap to the X‐ray microanalysis of Si‐Ge binary alloys, in order to assess the dependence of the Ge concentrations and the local film thickness, obtained by using previously described Monte Carlo methods, on the precision of the measured intensities. We show how it is possible by this method to determine the statistical errors associated with the quantitative analysis performed in sample regions of different composition and thickness, but by conducting only one measurement. We recommend the use of the bootstrap for a broad range of applications for quantitative microanalysis to estimate the precision of the final results and to compare the performances of different methods to each other. Finally, we exploited a test based on bootstrap confidence intervals to ascertain if, for given X‐ray intensities, different values of the estimated composition in two points of the sample are indicative of an actual lack of homogeneity.