The increasing availability of synchrotron x-ray sources has stimulated the development of advanced hard x-ray (E≥5 keV) microprobes. With new x-ray optics these microprobes can achieve micron and submicron spatial resolutions. The inherent elemental and crystallographic sensitivity of an x-ray microprobe and its inherently nondestructive and penetrating nature will have important applications to materials science. For example, x-ray fluorescent microanalysis of materials can reveal elemental distributions with greater sensitivity than alternative nondestructive probes. In materials, segregation and nonuniform distributions are the rule rather than the exception. Common interfaces to whichsegregation occurs are surfaces, grain and precipitate boundaries, dislocations, and surfaces formed by defects such as vacancy and interstitial configurations. In addition to chemical information, an x-ray diffraction microprobe can reveal the local structure of a material by detecting its phase, crystallographic orientation and strain.Demonstration experiments have already exploited the penetrating nature of an x-ray microprobe and its inherent elemental sensitivity to provide new information about elemental distributions in novel materials.
