Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T08:54:42.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Optimizing Spatial Resolution for X-ray Microanalysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Eric Lifshin ,
Raynald Gauvin  and
Di Wu
Eric Lifshin
Affiliation:
Albany Institute for Materials, University at Albany, CESTM, 251 Fuller Road, Albany, NY, 12301.
Raynald Gauvin
Affiliation:
Département de génie mécanique, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, CanadaJ1K 2R1.
Di Wu
Affiliation:
Albany Institute for Materials, University at Albany, CESTM, 251 Fuller Road, Albany, NY, 12301.
Get access

Abstract

In Castaing’s classic Ph.D. dissertation he described how the limiting value of x-ray spatial resolution for x-ray microanalysis, of about 1 μm, was not imposed by the diameter of the electron beam, but by the size of the region excited inside the specimen. Fifty years later this limit still applies to the majority of measurement made in EMAs and SEMs, even though there is often a need to analyze much finer structures. When high resolution chemical analysis is required, it is generally necessary to prepare thin sections and examine them in an analytical electron microscope where the maximum diameter of the excited volume may be as small as a few nanometers. Since it is not always possible or practical, it is important to determine just what is the best spatial resolution attainable for the examination of polished or “as received” samples with an EMA or SEM and how to achieve it experimentally.

Type
Quantitative X-Ray Microanalysis in the Microprobe, in the SEM and in The ESEM:Theory and Practice (Organized by R. Gauvin and E. Lifshin)
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 7 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis 2001, Microscopy Society of America 59th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 35th Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California August 5-9, 2001 , August 2001 , pp. 694 - 695
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Castaing, R., (1951), Ph. D. Thesis, University of ParisGoogle Scholar
2.Watanabe, M., & Williams, D. B. (1999) "Atomic Level Detection by X-ray Microanalysis in the Analytical Electron Microscope",Ultramicroscopy, 78 pp 89–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Lyman, C. E., et. al. (1990), "Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Microanalysis and Analytical Electron Microscopy, a Lab Workbook", Plenum Press, New YorkCrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Diebold, A. & Joy, D. C. (2000), "Current State of Defect Review by Electron Beam Tools: White Paper" SEMATECH Technology Transfer #00013877A-ENGGoogle Scholar
5.Wollman, D. A., Irwin, K. D., Hilton, G. C., Dulcie, L. L., Newbury, D. E. and Martinis, J. M.,(1997),"High Resolution, Energy Dispersive Microcalorimeter Spectrometer for X-ray Microanalysis", J. Microscopy 188, pp 196–223CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.NORAN Instruments, private communicationGoogle Scholar