Abstract
We have developed an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer system for scanning electron microscope utilizing a transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter X-ray detector and mounted it on a FE-SEM (JSM-7000F). The microcalorimeter is composed of a gold (Au) X-ray absorber, a bilayer Au / Ti thermometer, a heat sink and a thermal isolation structure with a SiNx membrane. The operating temperature of 100 - 150 mK is obtained via a dilution refrigerator. The achieved energy resolution was 19 eV for Al Kα (1487 eV) at an acceleration voltage of 5 kV. When natural mineral (cosalite: Pb2Bi2S5) and alloy (Cu alloy containing both Ni and Zn) were analyzed using this system at an acceleration voltage of 5 kV, the S K, Pb M and Bi M lines in the former, and L lines of the Ni, Cu and Zn in the latter were clearly separated, respectively. These peaks were not discernable by a solid-state detector (SSD), owing to its low energy resolution. In addition, a single particle of natural particulate matter was successfully analyzed by this spectrometer at a low acceleration voltage. These results suggest that this system has high potential in applications for X-ray microanalysis of environmental materials
