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Chemical Quantitative Analysis of Small Precipitates in the FE-SEM Using the Energy Distribution of Backscattered Electrons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Raynald Gauvin
Raynald Gauvin*
Affiliation:
Département de génie mécanique, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Québec, CanadaJ1K 2R1.
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Extract

Low voltage scanning electron microscopy with a field emission source allows characterization of materials with high spatial resolution. This high resolution comes from the low incident energy which gives a small interaction volume (about 10 nm in Fe at 1 keV ), from the field emission source which gives a small probe size (about 2.5 nm in the most recent FE-SEM) and from virtual, or through the lens, secondary electron detectors with gives high collection efficiency and eliminates some of the SEII and all the SEIII- For example, it has been shown that 10 nm NbC inclusions in steels can be imaged in such FE-SEM at 2 keV (this work was performed with a HITACHI S-4500). However, quantitative x-ray analysis of such precipitates are difficult because the critical ionization energy of the Nb Lα lines is equal to 2.37 keV, an incident electron energy of at least 5 keV must be used to get significant x-ray counts rates.

Type
New Trends in Scanning Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 4 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '98, Microscopy Society of America 56th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 32nd Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia July 12-16, 1998 , July 1998 , pp. 254 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

1.Gauvin, R. and Yue, S. (1997), ”The observation of NbC precipi-tates in steel in the nanometer range using a field emission gun scanning electron microscope”. Microscopy & Microanalysis, Vol. 3, Supp. 2, pp. 1243–1244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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