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Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Spectrum Simulation with NIST DTSA-II: Comparing Simulated and Measured Electron-Excited Spectra

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2022

Dale E. Newbury Open the ORCID record for Dale E. Newbury [Opens in a new window]  and
Nicholas W. M. Ritchie Open the ORCID record for Nicholas W. M. Ritchie [Opens in a new window]
Dale E. Newbury*
Affiliation:
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
Nicholas W. M. Ritchie
Affiliation:
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Dale E. Newbury, E-mail: dale.newbury@nist.gov
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Abstract

Electron-excited X-ray microanalysis with energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) proceeds through the application of the software that extracts characteristic X-ray intensities and performs corrections for the physics of electron and X-ray interactions with matter to achieve quantitative elemental analysis. NIST DTSA-II is an open-access, fully documented, and freely available comprehensive software platform for EDS quantification, measurement optimization, and spectrum simulation. Spectrum simulation with DTSA-II enables the prediction of the EDS spectrum from any target composition for a specified electron dose and for the solid angle and window parameters of the EDS spectrometer. Comparing the absolute intensities for measured and simulated spectra reveals correspondence within ±25% relative to K-shell and L-shell characteristic X-ray peaks in the range of 1–11 keV. The predicted M-shell intensity exceeds the measured value by a factor of 1.4–2.2 in the range 1–3 keV. The X-ray continuum (bremsstrahlung) generally agrees within ±10% over the range of 1–10 keV. Simulated EDS spectra are useful for developing an analytical strategy for challenging problems such as estimating trace detection levels.

Keywords

EDS simulationelectron-excited X-ray microanalysiselemental analysisenergy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS)NIST DTSA-II software
Type
Software and Instrumentation
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 28 , Issue 6 , December 2022 , pp. 1905 - 1916
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Microscopy Society of America

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References

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