Efficient X-ray Mapping of an Entire Geological Thin Section by SEM-based EDS
Elemental distribution maps of entire thin-sections (28 mm x 48 mm) can be acquired by SEM-based EDS within minutes or seconds using the image extension function of the Bruker ESPRIT software. Such an overview analysis is often sufficient to visualize the distribution of elements within a sample. Fig. 1 shows a series of maps acquired with different dwell times per pixel, ranging from 2048 µs to only 4 µs. The results show acquisition times of only a few seconds per frame often suffice to distinguish the major elements distribution and identify the principal phases and textures within the sample.
Fig. 1: A series of X-ray elemental maps acquired with different resolution (px) and dwell time per pixel (dw). The image on the lower left displays the resulting phase map for the mantle peridotite specimen.