Bruker AXS Microanalysis has introduced the Xflash 5030 T, a silicon drift detector (SDD) designed for energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) on transmission electron microscopes (TEM/STEM).
SDDs have become widely accepted as the detector of choice for EDS analysis on scanning electron microscopes (SEM).
In the case of TEM, the use of SDDs had been avoided due to a series of geometrical and physical conditions, such as detection geometry, high excitation energy and sensitivity of the electro-magnetic lens system.
Bruker's Xflash 5030 T SDD is said to meet the requirements for safe and reliable operation on TEM/STEM, making the benefits of the SDD technology available to TEM users.
The Xflash 5030 T permits faster and more efficient data collection, and shows better light element performance than Si(Li) detectors.
The detector is operated at temperatures around -25C, which are easily achieved using a simple Peltier cooler.
Bruker said this guarantees absolutely vibration-free operation, avoiding any disturbance at the (S)TEM.
In addition to providing stable energy resolution of 127eV at Mn Ka, the Xflash 5030 T is also capable of handling extreme count rates and can easily withstand X-ray overload conditions, for example, in case of crossing a support grid.
The Xflash 5030 T is designed not to influence the imaging performance of the microscope, even at its highest resolutions.
The Xflash 5030 T forms part of the Quantax EDS system for TEM, which combines the speed and accuracy of the detector with Esprit software to provide good qualitative and quantitative element analysis on TEM samples, as well as mapping and line-scan capabilities for STEM.