Quantitative Elemental Mapping at Atomic Resolution Using X-Ray Spectroscopy

Kothleitner, Gerald; Neish, M. J.; Lugg, Nathan; Findlay, Scott; Grogger, Werner; Hofer, Ferdinand; Allen, L. J.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.112.085501

Cited by 108 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…As in all EDS maps of thicker specimens, beam broadening, de-channeling and X-ray reabsorption add a lot of non-local information to the elemental maps (Spurgeon et al). For these reasons, atomic column-wise quantitative composition measurements are difficult, although such feats have been achieved with careful modeling of the electron probe and its interaction with the specimen (Lu et al, 2013;Kothleitner et al, 2014).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atomic-resolution chemical mapping of ordered precipitates in Al alloys using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

Wenner

Jones

Marioara

et al. 2017

Micron

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Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) is a common technique for chemical mapping in thin samples. Obtaining high-resolution elemental maps in the STEM is jointly dependent on stepping the sharply focused electron probe in a precise raster, on collecting a significant number of characteristic X-rays over time, and on avoiding damage to the sample. In this work, 80 kV aberration-corrected STEM-EDS mapping was performed on ordered precipitates in aluminium alloys. Probe and sample instability problems are handled by acquiring series of annular dark-field (ADF) images and simultaneous EDS volumes, which are aligned and non-rigidly registered after acquisition. The summed EDS volumes yield elemental maps of Al, Mg, Si, and Cu, with sufficient resolution and signal-to-noise ratio to determine the elemental species of each atomic column in a periodic structure, and in some cases the species of single atomic columns. Within the uncertainty of the technique, S and β'' phases were found to have pure elemental atomic columns with compositions Al 2 CuMg and Al 2 Mg 5 Si 4 , respectively. The Q' phase showed some variation in chemistry across a single precipitate, although the majority of unit cells had a composition Al 6 Mg 6 Si 7.2 Cu 2 .

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atomic-resolution chemical mapping of ordered precipitates in Al alloys using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

Wenner

Jones

Marioara

et al. 2017

Micron

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“…However, the data can only be interpreted qualitatively because the elastic and thermal scattering of the electron probe confounds quantitative analysis. [34] High resolution elemental mapping can be collected with sample tilting to create a three dimensional re-construction. This method is particularly useful for particles with a domain structure, or coreshell structure, or any phase separation.…”

Section: Crystal Facets and Growth Orientationmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Can Electron Microscopy Tell Us Beyond Crystal Structures?

Zhou

Greer

2016

Eur J Inorg Chem

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Transmission electron microscopy is a powerful tool to directly image crystal structures. Not only that, it is often used to reveal crystal size and morphology, crystal orientation, crystal defects, surface structures, superstructures, etc. However, due to the 2D nature of TEM images, it is easy to make mistakes when we try to recover a 3D structure from them. Scanning electron microscopy is able to provide information on the parti-

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“…Assuming the existence of high symmetry orientations having projected atom-atom distances longer than ~0.1 nm, every atomic column in a lattice may be imaged. Upon combination with a spectroscopy technique such as electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) [24] or energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) [25], compositional mapping with atomic resolution becomes feasible for a suitably thin and stable specimen.…”

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confidence: 99%

A hybrid aluminium alloy and its zoo of interacting nano-precipitates

Wenner

Marioara

Andersen

et al. 2015

Materials Characterization

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An alloy with aluminium as its base element is heat treated to form a multitude of precipitate phases known from different classes of industrial alloys: Al-Cu(-Mg), Al-Mg-Si-Cu, and Al-Zn-Mg. Nanometer-sized needle-shaped particles define the starting point of the phase nucleation, after which there is a split in the precipitation sequence into six phases of highly diverse compositions and morphologies. There are several unique effects of phases from different alloy systems being present in the same host lattice, of which we concentrate on two: the replacement of Ag by Zn on the Ω interface and the formation of combined plates of the θ' and C phases. Using atomically resolved scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, we investigate the formation mechanisms, crystal structures and compositions of the precipitates.

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Quantitative Elemental Mapping at Atomic Resolution Using X-Ray Spectroscopy

Cited by 108 publications

References 27 publications

Atomic-resolution chemical mapping of ordered precipitates in Al alloys using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

Atomic-resolution chemical mapping of ordered precipitates in Al alloys using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

What Can Electron Microscopy Tell Us Beyond Crystal Structures?

A hybrid aluminium alloy and its zoo of interacting nano-precipitates

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