EELS at very high energy losses

Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) has been investigated in the range from 2 to >10 keV using an optimized optical coupling of the microscope to the spectrometer to improve the high loss performance in EELS. It is found that excellent quality data can now be acquired up until about 5 keV, suitable for both energy loss near edge structure (ELNES) studies of oxidation and local chemistry, and potentially useful for extended energy loss fine structure (EXELFS) studies of local atomic ordering. Examples studied included oxidation in Zr, Mo and Sn, and the ELNES and EXELFS of the Ti-K edge. It is also shown that good quality electron energy-loss spectroscopy can even be performed for losses above 9.2 keV, the energy loss at which the collection angle becomes ‘infinite’, and this is demonstrated using the tungsten L(3) edge at about 10.2 keV.