The qualitative f‐ratio method applied to electron channelling‐induced x‐ray imaging with an annular silicon drift detector in a scanning electron microscope in the transmission mode

Abstract

SummaryElectron channelling is known to affect the x‐ray production when an accelerated electron beam is applied to a crystalline material and is highly dependent on the local crystal orientation. This effect, unless very long counting time are used, is barely noticeable on x‐ray energy spectra recorded with conventional silicon drift detectors (SDD) located at a small elevation angle. However, the very high count rates provided by the new commercially available annular SDDs permit now to observe this effect routinely and may, in some circumstances, hide the true elemental x‐ray variations due to the local true specimen composition. To circumvent this issue, the recently developed f‐ratio method was applied to display qualitatively the true net intensity x‐ray variations in a thin specimen of a Ti‐6Al‐4V alloy in a scanning electron microscope in transmission mode. The diffraction contrast observed in the x‐ray images was successfully cancelled through the use of f‐ratios and the true composition variations at the grain boundaries could be observed in relation to the dislocation alignment prior to the β‐phase nucleation. The qualitative effectiveness in removing channelling effects demonstrated in this work makes the f‐ratio, in its quantitative form, a possible alternative to the ZAF method in channelling conditions.