ABSTRACT
Electron energy loss sp ectroscopy (EELS) analyzes the excitations o f valence or core e lectro n s to unoccupied sta tes in the solid or to higher energies w hen an electron b eam p asses through a thin specim en. I t provides a m easu rem en t o f the chem ical com position,
valence, bonding, e lectro n ic stru cture, d ie lectric prop erties, and even m agnetic p ro p erties o f th e m aterials. Com bined w ith the pow er o f the ab erra tio n -corrected scanning tran sm ission electron m icroscope (STEM ), STEM -EELS is rapidly developing to be the m ethod o f choice for unraveling stru cture/property re lations a t the atom ic scale and w ith single-atom sensitivity. This b ook chapter covers the b asic princip les o f EELS and issu es concern ing spatial resolution and localization o f the signal and p resen ts a num ber o f applications to nan ostru ctu res and com plex oxides.
