METHOD OF QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS BY MEANS OF THE MEAN ATOMIC NUMBER OF PHASES CONTAINING A LIGHT ELEMENT USING A SCANNING MICROSCOPE AND AN IMAGE ANALYSER

The invention relates to an accurate method of quantitative analysis by the quantitative determination of the mean atomic number of phases containing two light elements or one light element combined with heavy elements using a scanning microscope connected to an image analyser of the intensity of the back-scattered electrons. This method of quantitative analysis by the quantitative determination of the mean atomic number (Z.sub.1) with a precision of .+-.0.1 unit of an unknown phase present in the plane micrographic section of a sample, containing either two light elements (3.ltoreq.Z.ltoreq.11) or at least one heavy element (Z>12) and a single light element (3.ltoreq.Z.ltoreq.11) using a scanning electron microscope comprising analyser X coupled to an image analyser, the image analyser allowing the local intensity of the back-scattered electrons to be measured by the level of greyness (G) of the corresponding image, this method involving, under given operation conditions: PA1 (a) determination of the calibration curve G=f (Z) by means of a known samples, PA1 (b) determination of the level of greyness (G.sub.1) of the unknown phase under consideration, PA1 (c) determination of (Z.sub.1) by the equation given in a), PA1 (d) determination of the chemical composition by means of the equation Z.sub.1 -g (n.sub.1, Zi), n.sub.1 being the atomic abundance of the element of atomic under Zi present in the phase under consideration, and wherein the values of G or of G.sub.1 are determined by the arithmetic mean of the levels of greyness measured by the image analyser over the entire surface of the unknown phase or phases and/or of the reference sample or samples present in the visualized field. This method can be used for the identification of a very large number of phases such as carbides, nitrides, borides, oxides, etc.