Development and applications of a new soft X-ray emission spectrometer for electron probe microanalysis and/or nanoanalysis

Takahashi, Hideyuki*; Handa, Nobuo*; Murano, Takanori*; Koike, Masato; Kawachi, Tetsuya; Imazono, Takashi; Hasegawa, Noboru; Terauchi, Masami*; Koeda, Masaru*; Nagano, Tetsuya*; Sasai, Hiroyuki*; Oue, Yuki*; Yonezawa, Zeno*; Kuramoto, Satoshi*

A very unique high performance soft X-ray emission spectrometer (SXES) has successfully been developed which can be attached not only to transmission electron microscopes (TEMs), but also to scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) as well as electron probe microanalyzers (EPMAs). To extend the analyzed energy ranges, a newly designed laminar-type varied-line-spacing (VLS) grating JS50XL, for a lower energy range, 50-170 eV, and a multilayered VLS grating JS4000, for a higher energy range, 2000-4000 eV, have been developed and installed to this spectrometer. Application software has also been developed for a commercial use of SXES in several fields such as battery materials, steel and alloys, and electron devices. The appearance of this spectrometer attached to EPMA and a few results acquired are shown in the following figures. This development has been conducted as one of the projects of Collaborative Development of Innovative Seeds (Practicability verification stage) by Japan Science and Technology Agency.