Overview
Program STANDARD.EXE maintains the standard composition database used by Probe for EPMA for quantitative analysis. A menu item is provided in the Probe for EPMA application to run Standard asynchronously.
The standard composition database is in Microsoft Access v. 3.5 format and can also be accessed using Microsoft Office Professional (although no direct modification of the tables using Access should normally be attempted). To import standard compositional data from older versions of Probe for EPMA, first export the standard database to an ASCII file and then import the data using the Import menu item.
Standard stores all standard compositions as elemental concentrations. However, the user may elect to enter and display the composition in either oxide or elemental concentrations. In addition, the user may enter standard compositions based on a simple formula if creating a new standard composition.
Oxide standards are standards whose compositions are defined by cation concentrations and their corresponding cation and oxygen valence subscripts. Elemental standards are defined by elemental concentrations only. Whether a standard is entered and/or displayed as an oxide or elemental standard is determined by the value of the Enter Composition In and/or Display Composition As options in the File | Modify dialog. However, both oxide and elemental standards may be used to analyze either oxide or elemental calculated unknown samples in Probe for EPMA in any combination.