Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrum Simulation with NIST DTSA-II: Comparing Simulated and Measured Electron-Excited Spectra

Published

September 2, 2022

Author(s)

Dale E. Newbury, Nicholas Ritchie

Abstract

Electron-excited X-ray microanalysis with energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) proceeds through the application of the software that extracts characteristic X-ray intensities and performs corrections for the physics of electron and X-ray interactions with matter to achieve quantitative elemental analysis. NIST DTSA-II is an open-access, fully documented, and freely available comprehensive software platform for EDS quantification, measurement optimization, and spectrum simulation. Spectrum simulation with DTSA-II enables the prediction of the EDS spectrum from any target composition for a specified electron dose and for the solid angle and window parameters of the EDS spectrometer. Comparing the absolute intensities for measured and simulated spectra reveals correspondence within ±25% relative to K-shell and L-shell characteristic X-ray peaks in the range of 1–11 keV. The predicted M-shell intensity exceeds the measured value by a factor of 1.4–2.2 in the range 1–3 keV. The X-ray continuum (bremsstrahlung) generally agrees within ±10% over the range of 1–10 keV. Simulated EDS spectra are useful for developing an analytical strategy for challenging problems such as estimating trace detection levels.

Citation

Microscopy and Microanalysis

Volume

28

Issue

6

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927622012272

Local Download

Keywords

Electron-excited X-ray microanalysis, elemental analysis, energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS), EDS simulation, NIST DTSA-II software

Citation

Newbury, D. and Ritchie, N. (2022), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrum Simulation with NIST DTSA-II: Comparing Simulated and Measured Electron-Excited Spectra, Microscopy and Microanalysis, [online], https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927622012272, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=934680 (Accessed October 16, 2025)