Improving energy resolution of EELS spectra: an alternative to the monochromator solution

In this paper, we propose a numerical method which can routinely improve the energy resolution down to 0.2–0.3 eV of electron energy-loss spectra acquired in a transmission electron microscope. The method involves measurement of the point-spread function (PSF) corresponding to the spectrometer aberration and to the incident energy spread, and then an inversion of this PSF so as to restore the spectrum. The chosen algorithm is based on an iterative calculation of the maximum likelihood solution known to be very robust against small errors in the PSF used. Restorations have been performed on diamond and graphite C-K edges acquired with an initial energy resolution of around 1 eV. After reconstruction, the sharp core exciton lines become clearly visible for both compounds and the final energy resolution is estimated to be about 200–300 meV. In the case of graphite, restorations involving both energy resolution and angular resolution have been successfully conducted. Finally, restorations of Fe L2,3 and O-K edges measured for various iron oxides will be shown.