https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/201715306013
Rapid evaluation of particle properties using inverse SEM simulations
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Reactor and Nuclear Systems Division, P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 37831, USA
* Corresponding author: millertm@ornl.gov
Published online: 25 September 2017
The characteristic X-rays produced by the interactions of the electron beam with the sample in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) are usually captured with a variable-energy detector, a process termed energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS). The purpose of this work is to exploit inverse simulations of SEM-EDS spectra to enable rapid determination of sample properties, particularly elemental composition. This is accomplished using penORNL, a modified version of PENELOPE, and a modified version of the traditional Levenberg–Marquardt nonlinear optimization algorithm, which together is referred to as MOZAIK-SEM. The overall conclusion of this work is that MOZAIK-SEM is a promising method for performing inverse analysis of X-ray spectra generated within a SEM. As this methodology exists now, MOZAIK-SEM has been shown to calculate the elemental composition of an unknown sample within a few percent of the actual composition.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
