Maximum-entropy deconvolution applied to electron energy-loss spectroscopy

In the present paper, we investigate the performance of maximum-entropy deconvolution, in removing the instrumental response function from electron energy-loss spectra. To this end we make use of spectra acquired from the carbon K-edge in graphite for a range of signal-to-noise ratios. The zero-loss peak is used as the instrumental profile. The resolution improvement obtained through the application of the deconvolution algorithm as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio is well described by a logarithmic dependency. The claimed resolution improvement is further substantiated by demonstrating the consistency between improvement obtained for the width of the instrumental response function, the width of the pi* peak and the splitting of the sigma* peaks for a range of signal-to-noise ratios. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.