Abstract
This paper reports on the application of SOM to chemical spectra analysis. The Self-Organising Map (SOM) method that was developed by T. Kohonen [1] was first applied to information processing. Currently, it has been applied to some problems of chemical spectra analysis using AES (Auger Electron Spectroscopy), XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy), and XRD (X-ray Diffraction) data. Using a 2-dimensional SOM, it became clear that the items that are described qualitatively by linguistic expressions could be explained more quantitatively by the position of the spectral data on the SOM together with a grey level expression. Also, the composition of an unknown sample can be determined very precisely by the SOM that has been constructed using the spectra from samples of known composition. Furthermore, this paper addresses the attempts to develop a SOM of all the elements of the periodic table. Currently, only 77 elements have been mapped out.
