ABSTRACT
The development and widespread availability of field-emission scanning electron microscopes (FE-SEMs) have sparked considerable interest in performing high-spatialresolution x-ray microanalysis at low beam energies [1,2]. While conventional semiconductor energy dispersive spectrometers (EDS) are especially hampered by poor energy resolution in this “low voltage” regime, high-energy-resolution microcalorimeter EDS (jncal EDS) [2,3] have demonstrated ability to effectively resolve x-ray peak overlaps comparable to that of wavelength dispersive spectrometers (WDS) with TAP diffractors. In addition, the microcalorimeter resolution is better by a factor of three than that of the synthetic multilayer WDS diffractors that are currently favored for the energy range 100 eV to 700 eV. The high energy resolution of peal EDS also enables measurement of peak energy shifts and shape changes related to chemical bonding, providing valuable chemical state information for low voltage microanalysis [2]. With count rate (-500 s'1) and effective area (-5 mm2, using a polycapillary optic) approaching that of high-resolution semiconductor EDS, peal EDS opens exciting new measurement possibilities in the emerging field of low voltage microanalysis.
