ABSTRACT
Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) is the general title and acronym for techniques whereby a beam of electrons is allowed to interact with matter and the scattered beam of electrons is spectroscopically analysed to give the energy spectrum of electrons after the interaction. The use of electrons as a probe of the atomic and electronic structure of solids has many advantages. Outer electrons are easily removed from an atom or a solid since only a small amount of energy need be supplied either in the form of heat or under the application of a strong electric field. In the majority of electron microscopes, high-energy primary electrons are incident on the specimen and, either the same electrons, or electrons produced via a variety of secondary effects exit the specimen to form an image or a measured signal.
