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

Published

June 29, 2022

Author(s)

Dale E. Newbury, Nicholas Ritchie

Abstract

NIST DTSA-II is an open-source, comprehensive software platform for the analysis and simulation of electron-excited energy dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS). EDS spectrum simulation uses an embedded Monte Carlo electron trajectory calculation with generation and propagation of characteristic and continuum X-rays through the target and EDS components. The resulting simulated spectrum is calculated on an absolute basis and can be directly compared to experimental measurements made with a known electron dose and EDS solid angle. Extensive studies of pure elements and binary stoichiometric compounds excited at a beam energy of 20 keV reveal that for the K-shell and L-shell X-rays in the energy range from 1 keV to 12 keV, the simulated and measured spectra generally agree within ±25%, whereas for M-shell X-rays, the simulated intensity exceeds the experimental intensity by 25% to 100%. For the X-ray bremsstrahlung in the 1 keV to 12 keV range, the agreement is generally within ±10%.

Citation

Microscopy and Microanalysis

Volume

28

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1017/S1431927622012272

Local Download

Keywords

energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry, electron excited X-rays, Monte Carlo electron trajectory simulation

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=933946 (Accessed October 27, 2025)