High-spatial-resolution x-ray microanalysis: Comparison of experiment and incoherent scattering calculations

Abstract

There have been many experimental efforts to measure the spatial resolution for x-ray microanalysis in the analytical electron microscope (AEM). There have been three commonly utilized specimen geometries in these experiments: 1) segregant at a grain boundary, 2) interphase boundaries oriented parallel to the electron beam, and most recently 3) spherical particles embedded at various depths in thin foils. The results of many of these experiments have been analyzed with a number of models for the broadening of the electron beam as it traverses the thin foil. These models are typically based on incoherent electron scattering, typical of Monte Carlo simulations. A vast majority of the published spatial resolution data support the incoherent scattering models as the best simulation of spatial resolution for x-ray microanalysis in the AEM. Recent experimental work using embedded particles to measure beam broadening has been used to support the coherent scattering model of beam broadening.