Improving Energy Resolution of EELS Spectra by Deconvolution using Maximum-Entropy and Richardson-Lucy Algorithms

Abstract

Improving the energy resolution of EELS spectra acquired in TEM is very important to fully exploit the information contained in EELS near edge fine structures (ELNES). If the energy resolution is improved toward the 0.1 eV regime, ELNES details observable by EELS will open up the way for new applications. However, the energy resolution of EEL spectra is limited by the energy spread of the electron source: 0.6-0.8 eV for the Schottky field-emitter and 0.3-0.4 eV for the cold FEG. Implementation of energy monochromators has been demonstrated to improve the energy resolution down to 0.1-0.2 eV at the cost of loss of intensity [1].