Does anyone have any comments (direct or indirect evidence) or know of any references, to something I've wondered about for a long time. Decades ago, someone brought me some samples from materials science here, where I was told that the carbon coating was deposited by sputtering. I had difficulty acquiring good epma results, so I removed the carbon coat, coated in my evaporator, and had good results. From then on, I assumed that "sputtering of carbon" might not be as "good" as evaporated carbon, though I never did any true test (yes, the coating thickness might have been greatly different from my standards, I know now). Was I wrong to cast a negative light upon sputtered carbon coating for epma? Any thoughts? John Fournelle Ph.D. Senior Scientist Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin 1215 West Dayton Street, Madison, WI 53706 mobile 608-438-7480 **** JEOL Probe Users Listserver Moderator: Anette von der Handt, [log in to unmask], Electron Microprobe Lab, University of Minnesota Post a message: send your message to [log in to unmask] Unsubscribe: send "SIGNOFF PROBEUSERS" to [log in to unmask] On-line help and FAQ: http://probelab.geo.umn.edu/jeoluserlist.html *