Influence of experimental conditions on atom column visibility in energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

• Impacts of microscope operating conditions on EDX signal and atom column contrast are demonstrated.
• Influence of sample thickness and lattice spacing is shown.
• Conditions for obtaining optimal signal and contrast for different sample types are discussed.
• Effects of dwell time during EDX acquisition are discussed.

Here we report the influence of key experimental parameters on atomically resolved energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). In particular, we examine the role of the probe forming convergence semi-angle, sample thickness, lattice spacing, and dwell/collection time. We show that an optimum specimen-dependent probe forming convergence angle exists to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of the atomically resolved signal in EDX mapping. Furthermore, we highlight that it can be important to select an appropriate dwell time to efficiently process the X-ray signal. These practical considerations provide insight for experimental parameters in atomic resolution energy dispersive X-ray analysis.