Assessing phase discrimination via the segmentation of an elemental energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy map: a case study of Bi(2)Te(3) and Bi(2)Te(2)S

The present case study critically assesses the efficacy of a previously proposed segmentation methodology as a means to discriminate phases via post-processing the image of an elemental map. In the Bi(2)Te(2.5)S(0.5) multiphase compound, the reference spectra of the Bi(2)Te(3) and Bi(2)Te(2)S phases are distinct enough to effectively distinguish two phases during map acquisition. Since the counts of the sulphur-K peak in the X-ray emission data are significantly higher for Bi(2)Te(2)S compared to Bi(2)Te(3), the segmentation methodology exploits this variation and enables successful phase discrimination via post-processing the image of the elemental map.