Patent ID: 8155270

Claim:
A method for obtaining X-ray spectra in an X-ray spectrometer including: an energy beam emitter arranged to emit an energy beam toward a sample on a sample mount; an energy dispersive spectral collector arranged to receive X-rays emitted from the sample, the energy dispersive spectral collector having an energy dispersive spectrum (EDS) detector; a wavelength dispersive spectral collector arranged to receive X-rays emitted from the sample, the wavelength dispersive spectral collector having a wavelength dispersive spectrum (WDS) detector and a diffractor, with the diffractor providing X-rays from the sample to the wavelength dispersive spectrum (WDS) detector; the method including the steps of: directing an energy beam at a target location on the sample; obtaining an energy dispersive spectrum from the target location via the energy dispersive spectral collector; identifying from the energy dispersive spectrum a list of one or more candidate elements, each listed candidate element representing an element that may be present at the target location on the sample; obtaining one or more WDS intensity readings at the target location via the wavelength dispersive spectrum (WDS) detector, and performing at least one of the steps of: optimizing the position of the wavelength dispersive spectral collector with respect to the target location on the sample, wherein at least one of the wavelength dispersive spectral collector and the target location is repositioned with respect to the other such that a maximum WDS intensity reading is obtained for one of the listed candidate elements, and verifying the presence of at least one of the candidate elements in the list, wherein the candidate element is deleted from the list if the WDS intensity reading for the candidate element is at least substantially similar to a WDS intensity reading characteristic of background noise.