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Correction for the effects of elastic scattering in core‐loss quantification
Author(s) -
WONG K.,
EGERTON R. F.
Publication year - 1995
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.1365-2818.1995.tb03598.x
Subject(s) - elastic scattering , scattering , computational physics , amorphous solid , mean free path , core (optical fiber) , materials science , enhanced data rates for gsm evolution , intensity (physics) , optics , physics , molecular physics , atomic physics , chemistry , crystallography , computer science , telecommunications
SUMMARY In electron energy‐loss spectroscopy (EELS) elemental quantification, the measured intensity ratio has been observed to change with thickness ( t ) when a collector aperture is used. This change has been shown semi‐quantitatively to be a result of elastic scattering. In this paper, a method based on the elastic Lenz model is used to correct for the effects of elastic scattering in amorphous materials. The validity of the Lenz model is confirmed by studying the zero‐loss component of EEL spectra recorded from several amorphous materials as a function of thickness and collection angle. The experimental data are found to be consistent with calculations based on the Lenz model and Poisson statistics. Based on these calculations, a simple scheme is proposed to obtain the important scattering parameters t /Λ e , where Λ e is the elastic mean free path, and θ 0 , the characteristic angle of elastic scattering, with adequate accuracy from the low‐loss data. These values are then used to correct for the effect of elastic scattering in core‐edge quantification. The procedure is applied to Al 2 O 3 and good agreement with experimental data up to t = 2Λ e is found; beyond 2Λ e the method can serve as a partial correction.