Development of Electron Probe Instrumentation during Those Early Days When Professor Castaing Visited Japan

Abstract The development of the electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) in Japan in the early 1960s, when Prof. R. Castaing visited Japan, is briefly outlined. In 1955, a review article was published by Prof. G. Shinoda in Oyobutsuri, the most popular journal in Japan, in which the EPMA was introduced. In 1957, a research group at the University of Tokyo started to develop an EPMA with a Grant-in-Aid for Developmental Research. Their research results led to the funding of a 2-year Grant-in-Aid for Cooperative Research Project (April 1960 to March 1962), which was chaired by Prof. Y. Sakaki. Prof. G. Shinoda who became the chairman of that project in April of 1962 led that group for another year until March of 1963. It was just after the start of the project that Prof. R. Castaing visited Japan in September of 1960 as a representative of the French Mission Culturelle. This visit gave a great push forward for the commercial development of EPMA instruments in Japan. The first three commercial EPMA instruments from Hitachi, JEOL, and Akashi Ltds. were installed in Tohoku, Osaka, and Waseda Universities in 1962, 1963, and 1964, respectively. Photographs of those first commercial EPMA systems, together with a brief description of the activities of the cooperative research projects, are presented.