Image-spectroscopy-II.: The removal of plural scattering from extended energy-filtered series by Fourier deconvolution

The increased spectral information obtained by acquiring an EFTEM image-series over several hundred eV allows plural scattering to be removed from loss images using standard deconvolution techniques developed for the quantification of EEL spectra. In this work, both Fourier-log and Fourier-ratio deconvolution techniques have been applied successfully to such image-series. Application of the Fourier-log technique over an energy-loss range of several hundred eV has been achieved by implementation of a novel method that extends the effective dynamic range of EFTEM image-series acquisition by over four orders of magnitude. Experimental results show that the removal of plural scattering from EFTEM image-series gives a significant improvement in quantification for thicker specimen regions. Further, the recovery of the single-scattering distribution using the Fourier-log technique over an extended energy-loss range is shown to result in an increase in both the ionisation-edge jump-ratio and the signal-to-noise ratio. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.