Energy Dispersive Spectrometry in the AEM

Abstract

Energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS) with a SiLi detector has become a standard technique in the analytical electron microscope (AEM). There have been many difficulties to overcome involving both the interfacing of the spectrometer to the microscope and in developing robust techniques for quantitative analysis of thin specimens. The AEM is a difficult environment for EDS due to the high accelerating voltages (100-400 kV) typically used and due to constraints on detector placement relative to the specimen as a result of the confined space within the specimen region of the AEM. The first published account of the installation of SiLi EDS on a transmission electron microscope (TEM) occurred in 1969. In this paper and subsequent publications, these authors described many of the difficulties that still haunt EDS in the AEM.The initial attempts at interfacing EDS to a TEM column demonstrated that the. specimen stage of a TEM was not ideal for this purpose.