EFTEM SI Setup

When configuring your system for EFTEM spectrum imaging (SI) acquisition, you can adjust the settings in the EFTEM SI Setup dialog when using DigitalMicrograph^® software.

EFTEM SI has a basic version and an advanced version. Below, we will discuss the workflow for setting up the basic version.

Press Setup under the primary EFTEM SI technique to access the EFTEM SI Setup dialog. This dialog box is divided into different groups of parameters.

• Energy Range – Determines the total energy range and energy sampling of the EFTEM SI acquisition

  • Range – Specifies the energy range over which the EFTEM SI will be collected

  • Slit width – Indicates the slit width to be used during EFTEM SI acquisition

  • Step – Determines the step size between successive planes

  • Link – When checked, the energy step size and the slit width will automatically be linked to the same value

• Detector – Contains the detector reconfiguration parameters for the EFTEM SI acquisition

• Options – Contains optional items to modify the data acquisition

  • Acquire high to low – Gives you the flexibility to change the direction of the SI acquisition

    • High to low is recommended to limit detector after-flow

  • Align ZLP – Choose this option to perform a ZLP alignment before acquiring the spectrum image

    • This is not recommended as it often results in ghosting of the zero-loss image in the EFTEM SI