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Specimen holder design for X‐ray microanalysis of thin films in the TEM: reduction of spurious X‐rays
Author(s) -
Ryan K. G.,
Flower N. E.,
Presland M. R.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.1984.tb02521.x
Subject(s) - materials science , beryllium , alloy , thin film , collimated light , microanalysis , spurious relationship , analytical chemistry (journal) , optics , metallurgy , chemistry , physics , nanotechnology , laser , organic chemistry , chromatography , machine learning , computer science
SUMMARY Spurious Cu and Fe peaks were observed during energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy of thin resin sections or of thin gold films in a Philips EM400T. Since our field of interest lies in the distribution of Cu in thin sections, experiments were aimed at the elimination of this peak. Replacement of the low background specimen holder with one fashioned from a small strip of Al foil established that the source of the Cu was the Cu alloy of the specimen holder. Tests showed that the incident beam was well collimated and that the fluorescence of the holder was due to X‐rays scattered from the analysed volume. We have made a new low background specimen holder from an Al alloy (6351 T6) containing 1% Si, 1% Mg, 0·7% Mn and 0·4% Cu. Although the tensile strength of this material is only two‐thirds that of the Cu alloy, it is still sufficient for a mechanically robust holder. The spurious CuKα peak was not observed in the X‐ray spectrum when analyses were performed with this holder and when the beryllium top plate on the holder was doubled in thickness, no other peaks were introduced to the spectrum. The importance of eliminating spurious peaks is discussed.