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Synthesis of Electron Energy Loss Spectra and Application to Quantifying Detection Limits in Materials Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

N K Menon
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Box 352120, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98195 - 2120.
O L Krivanek
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Box 352120, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98195 - 2120.
M K H Natusch
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Box 352120, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98195 - 2120.
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Extract

Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) is a powerful microanalytical tool that can be used to characterize the composition and other properties of a wide range of materials. The compositional information is retrievable from the pattern of edges displayed in the energy-loss spectrum [1]. Under favorable experimental conditions, concentrations below 1000 ppm of many different elements can be detected on a nanometer scale [2].

The minimum detectable mass (MDM) and the minimum detectable mass fraction (MDF) attainable in practice depend on many parameters (sample thickness, incident beam convergence / acceptance angles, primary energy, electron dose, probe size, detector efficiency, etc.), and there are no easy rules that can be used to predict them. For instance, a minority element that gives rise to an edge situated at an energy just lower than a major edge due to a principal constituent is much easier to detect than a minority element that gives rise to an edge just above the major edge.

Type
Computational Methods for Microscopy and Microanalysis
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

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