2010 Volume 31 Issue 11 Pages 610-615
The capability of an analysis system consisting of a low voltage scanning electron microscope, which is superior in spatial resolution and surface sensitivity, and a superconducting transition edge sensor (TES), which is under development, has been evaluated. The analysis system equipped with the TES, which has a superior energy resolution by about an order of magnitude to a conventional energy dispersive x-ray spectrometer (EDS), is useful for chemical state analysis that makes use of the strength ratio of characteristic x-rays of the same series. Elemental segregation in microstructures, whose size is several tens of nanometers as for simple energy-window maps or around 10 nm as for point analysis, is also detectable. It is expected that precise distribution of minor elements, which overlap with major elements in conventional EDS spectra, and chemical state maps of specific elements can be evaluated if the data processing of spectral imaging is incorporated into the system.
