Background subtraction in STEM energy-loss mapping

Abstract

The determination of elemental distributions by electron energy loss spectroscopy necessitates removal of the non-characteristic spectral background from a core-edge at each point in the image. In the scanning transmission electron microscope this is made possible by computer controlled data acquisition. Data may be processed by fitting the pre-edge counts, at two or more channels, to an inverse power law, AE-r, where A and r are parameters and E is energy loss. Processing may be performed in real-time so a single number is saved at each pixel. Detailed analysis, shows that the largest contribution to noise comes from statistical error in the least squares fit to the background. If the background shape remains constant over the entire image, the signal-to-noise ratio can be improved by fitting only one parameter. Such an assumption is generally implicit in subtraction of the “reference image” in energy selected micrographs recorded in the CTEM with a Castaing-Henry spectrometer.