L-shell transition rates for Ba, Ta, W, Pt, Pb and Bi using electron microprobe

L-shell transition rates for several elements are obtained by means of a method for refining atomic and experimental parameters in electron probe microanalysis. An analytical function is used to account for the bremsstrahlung, characteristic peaks and detection artifacts from an irradiated material. The refinement procedure consists of minimizing the differences between the experimental X-ray spectrum and that predicted by means of the function proposed. In this work, the spectra considered were recorded with an energy dispersive system. The procedure is applied to Ta, W, Pt, Pb and Bi pure samples and a BaSO4 sample. More than ten transitions are studied for each element. The results obtained are in agreement with data given in the literature. Finally, the optimization procedure is applied to the refinement of mass concentrations in a sample in which L-lines are strongly overlapped with K lines.