Low-energy EDX – A novel approach to study stress corrosion cracking in SUS304 stainless steel via scanning electron microscopy

New insights into the oxidation mechanisms of a Ferritic-Martensitic steel in high-temperature steam

“…Due to the decrease of accelerating voltage (5 kV vs. 20 kV), both the spatial resolution and signal-tonoise ratio are significantly increased. More details can be found in [48]. To examine the crystallographic orientation of the surface oxide film, EBSD maps were obtained at a working distance of 18 mm and a sample tilt of 70°, with a beam voltage of 20 kV and 15 nA probe current.…”

“…However, the voltage we used for the EDX line-scanning is 5 kV, which is much lower than the normal 20 kV voltage. The decreased voltage has been proved to decrease the interaction volume remarkably [48], resulting in much smaller absorption and fluorescence effects. As a result, we believe the EDX signal intensities obtained at low energy can be used to analyse the proportional numbers of related atoms in a given volume in a qualitative manner.…”

Microstructural understanding of the oxidation of an austenitic stainless steel in high-temperature steam through advanced characterization

“…A lower accelerating voltage (5kV vs. 20kV) increased both the spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. More details can be found in [50]. To examine the crystallographic orientation of the surface oxide film, EBSD maps were obtained at a working distance of 18 mm and a sample tilt of 70°, with a beam voltage of 20kV and 15nA probe current.…”

Conditions for Low Voltage Microanalysis and X-ray Mapping

“…This, and high count rate throughput, is now allowing the possibility of operating the SEM at much lower accelerating voltages and subsequently reducing the interaction volume of the electron beam with the material as well as achieving higher spatial resolution information. Furthermore, SDD's can now be purchased with varying windows [2] and also windowless systems [3][4][5][6] allowing greater sensitivity of the lower energy X-rays. Figure 1 shows the EDS spectrum from an Amptek detector with two different window materials (C1 and C2).…”

“…By lowering the accelerating voltage, this forces the selection of X-ray lines with low excitation energy such as L and M family lines between 0-4kV, rather than using K and L lines between 0-20kV [1,3,6]. The measurement of low energy L line X-rays is complicated by low fluorescence yield, an increase in X-ray absorption, numerous X-ray interferences from other elements within the sample, and less accurately determined mass absorption coefficients [1,[3][4][5][6]. The overlaps of K-line X-rays from light elements with L and M line X-rays from heavier elements limit the low voltage analysis and mapping capabilities of conventional microanalysis systems [7].…”