Removing the effects of elastic and thermal scattering from electron energy-loss spectroscopic data

Abstract

Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) studies in scanning transmission electron microscopy are widely used to investigate the location and bonding of atoms in condensed matter. However, the interpretation of EELS data is complicated by multiple elastic and thermal diffuse scattering of the probing electrons. Here, we present a method for removing these effects from recorded EELS spectrum images, producing visually interpretable elemental maps and enabling direct comparison of the spectral data with established first-principles energy-loss fine structure calculations.