Abstract
Parallel-detection electron energy-loss spectrometers (PEELS) now routinely provide spectra in which the main source of noise is the statistical fluctuation in the number of arriving electrons (i.e., they have DQE > 0.5), achieve an energy resolution which is more than 90% limited by the electron microscope gun, and are fairly easy to operate. They have pushed the minimum detectable mass (MDM) obtainable by PEELS close to the single atom level, and have improved the minimum detectable mass fraction (MDF) so that it is now comparable or better than MDF detectable by EDXS even for elements as heavy as Fe. The attainable energy resolution is now 0.3-0.5 eV on a routine basis when the spectrometer is mounted on a cold field-emission gun (S)TEM operating at 100 kV (Fig. 1). This impressive progress has opened up an important question: where next?Our answer is three-fold: towards greater integration of EELS with other techniques of electron microscopy, towards new applications of the technique, and towards more quantitative and yet more user-friendly analysis of the results.
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