Background subtraction in STEM energy-loss mapping

Author(s):  
R.D. Leapman ◽  
K.E. Gorlen ◽  
C.R. Swyt

The determination of elemental distributions by electron energy loss spectroscopy necessitates removal of the non-characteristic spectral background from a core-edge at each point in the image. In the scanning transmission electron microscope this is made possible by computer controlled data acquisition. Data may be processed by fitting the pre-edge counts, at two or more channels, to an inverse power law, AE-r, where A and r are parameters and E is energy loss. Processing may be performed in real-time so a single number is saved at each pixel. Detailed analysis, shows that the largest contribution to noise comes from statistical error in the least squares fit to the background. If the background shape remains constant over the entire image, the signal-to-noise ratio can be improved by fitting only one parameter. Such an assumption is generally implicit in subtraction of the “reference image” in energy selected micrographs recorded in the CTEM with a Castaing-Henry spectrometer.

Author(s):  
M. G. R. Thomson

The variation of contrast and signal to noise ratio with change in detector solid angle in the high resolution scanning transmission electron microscope was discussed in an earlier paper. In that paper the conclusions were that the most favourable conditions for the imaging of isolated single heavy atoms were, using the notation in figure 1, either bright field phase contrast with β0⋍0.5 α0, or dark field with an annular detector subtending an angle between ao and effectively π/2.The microscope is represented simply by the model illustrated in figure 1, and the objective lens is characterised by its coefficient of spherical aberration Cs. All the results for the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM) may with care be applied to the Conventional Electron Microscope (CEM). The object atom is represented as detailed in reference 2, except that ϕ(θ) is taken to be the constant ϕ(0) to simplify the integration. This is reasonable for θ ≤ 0.1 θ0, where 60 is the screening angle.


Author(s):  
G. Botton ◽  
G. L’Espérance ◽  
M.D. Ball ◽  
C.E. Gallerneault

The recently developed parallel electron energy loss spectrometers (PEELS) have led to a significant reduction in spectrum acquisition time making EELS more useful in many applications in material science. Dwell times as short as 50 msec per spectrum with a PEELS coupled to a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), can make quantitative EEL images accessible. These images would present distribution of elements with the high spatial resolution inherent to EELS. The aim of this paper is to briefly investigate the effect of acquisition time per pixel on the signal to noise ratio (SNR), the effect of thickness variation and crystallography and finally the energy stability of spectra when acquired in the scanning mode during long periods of time.The configuration of the imaging system is the following: a Gatan PEELS is coupled to a CM30 (TEM/STEM) electron microscope, the control of the spectrometer and microscope is performed through a LINK AN10-85S MCA which is interfaced to a IBM RT 125 (running under AIX) via a DR11W line.


2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1134-1135
Author(s):  
K. Kaji ◽  
T. Aoyama ◽  
S. Taya ◽  
S. Isakozawa

The ability to obtain elemental maps processed by using inelastically scattered electrons in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) or a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) is extremely useful in the analysis of materials, and semiconductor devices such as ULSI’s and GMR heads. Electron energy loss spectra (EELS) also give useful information not only to identify unknown materials but also to study chemical bonding states of the objective atoms. Hitachi developed an elemental mapping system, consisting of a STEM (Hitachi, HD- 2000) equipped with a two-window energy filter (Hitachi, ELV-2000), and performed realtime conventional jump-ratio images with nanometer resolution by in-situ calculation of energy-filtered signals [1]. Additional function of acquiring EELS along any lines on specimen has been developed in this system to investigate the energy loss near edge structure (ELNES).Figure 1 shows a schematic figure of the two-window energy filter, consisting of two quadrupole lenses for focusing and zooming spectra, respectively, a magnetic prism spectrometer, a deflection coil and two kinds of electron beam detectors.


2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 1050-1060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lewys Jones ◽  
Peter D. Nellist

AbstractThe aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope has great sensitivity to environmental or instrumental disturbances such as acoustic, mechanical, or electromagnetic interference. This interference can introduce distortions to the images recorded and degrade both signal noise and resolution performance. In addition, sample or stage drift can cause the images to appear warped and leads to unreliable lattice parameters being exhibited. Here a detailed study of the sources, natures, and effects of imaging distortions is presented, and from this analysis a piece of image reconstruction code has been developed that can restore the majority of the effects of these detrimental image distortions for atomic-resolution data. Example data are presented, and the performance of the restored images is compared quantitatively against the as-recorded data. An improvement in apparent resolution of 16% and an improvement in signal-to-noise ratio of 30% were achieved, as well as correction of the drift up to the precision to which it can be measured.


2008 ◽  
Vol 14 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1400-1401 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Watanabe ◽  
M Kanno ◽  
D Ackland ◽  
CJ Kiely ◽  
DB Williams

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2008 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, August 3 – August 7, 2008


2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (S2) ◽  
pp. 160-161
Author(s):  
R.D. Leapman ◽  
C.M. Brooks ◽  
N.W. Rizzo ◽  
T.L. Talbot

Electron energy loss spectrum-imaging (EELSI) in the energy filtering transmission electron microscope (EFTEM) can provide more accurate analysis of elemental distributions than that obtainable by the standard two-window or three-window background subtraction techniques. Spectra containing many channels can be extracted from regions of interest and analyzed using established methods for quantitation. For example, the pre-edge background can be fitted by an inverse power law and subtracted from the post-edge spectrum. EELSI in the EFTEM is often superior to spectrum-imaging in the scanning transmission electron microscope for mapping specimen regions of size greater than 1 μm. This is due the much larger total beam current that is available at the specimen in a fixed-beam microscope relative to a scanned-beam microscope. Our aim here is demonstrate the advantages of such EELSI measurements for analysis of biological specimens. However, we also indicate some potential pitfalls in acquiring elemental maps in the EFTEM, which can be attributed to specimen instabilities during the acquisition.


Author(s):  
E. J. Kirkland ◽  
R. F. Loane ◽  
J. Silcox

The multislice method (e.g. Goodman and Moodie) of simulating bright field conventional transmission electron microscope (BF-CTEM) images of crystalline specimens can be extended to simulation of scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) images of similar specimens in the annular dark field (ADF) mode. According to the reciprocity theorem (Pogany and Turner and Cowley) BF-CTEM would be equivalent to BF STEM with a point detector. Such a detector (STEM) however would yield an exceedingly small signal to noise ratio. Thus, STEM has found more use in the ADF mode (e.g. Crewe et al.) exploiting the large contrast arising from heavy atoms. In BF imaging (CTEM and STEM) the constrast is roughly proportional to the scattering amplitude f α Z3/4 whereas in DF (CTEM and STEM) imaging it is roughly proportional to the scattering cross σ α Z3/2 where Z is atomic number, a form that is advantageous foatom discrimination.


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