An electron probe microanalysis system to replace an existing 14 year-old instrument

通过电子探针分析(EPMA)确定的无机材料的成分数据是地球/行星科学中相当多的研究的基础。可对小至2/1000 mm的斑点进行常量元素和某些微量元素的定量分析，精度为1%，并可生成元素空间分布的数字组成图。已有14年历史的UTasmania微探测器的停机时间越来越长，加上在矿床研究、环境地球科学和地质年代学方面的各种新的和令人兴奋的应用，迫使我们寻求资金来更换现有的EPMA设施，该设施已记录了约101,000小时的使用记录，涉及约250名研究人员，并产生了500多篇被引用的论文。

Compositional data determined on inorganic materials by electron microprobe analysis (EPMA) underpins a considerable amount research in Earth/planetary sciences. Spots down to 2/1000mm may be analysed quantitatively for major elements and some trace elements with an accuracy of <1%, and digital composition maps of the elemental spatial distribution can be generated. Increasing downtime on the 14 year-old UTasmania microprobe, coupled with diverse new and exciting applications in ore deposit research, environmental geoscience and geochronology force us to seek funds to replace the existing EPMA facility, which has logged ~101,000 hours of use involving ~250 researchers, and produced more than 500 refereed papers.