I have recorded EDS spectrum of Sb doped GeSe ternary alloy. Now my problem is, I am not getting any peak for Sb in the spectrum but when elemental mapping is conducted on the sample, a uniform distribution of Sb is recorded in the whole scanning area. What might be the reason for such result?
Chaitanya Limberkar,
This is most likely an issue with step size and counting statistics between full area EDS and EDS mapping. Step size between points and count time is important to observing EDS peaks which is majorly reduced during mapping to minimize the overall collection time of the map. Also, since the full area EDS can have longer count times, this inherently increases the maximum counts and S/N ratio which may mask the Sb peak. Another consideration is that the step size as well as the beam interaction volume are imperative to the signal of doped elements. Also, EDS software is notorious for mislabeling peaks and not identifying small peaks due to the larger peak intensity dwarfing the small intensity dopant peaks. This may be something to recheck the data. If you could provide the data that would help with this particular point.
Cheers and good luck!
Alec Ladonis,
Thank you for the promt reply. This was really helpful. And for your reference I am adding the EDS data here. Again thanks very much for the help.
Chaitanya Limberkar,
This looks like the high background and count rate of the Se and Ge is dwarfing the signal for Sb which is typical for doping in small amounts (
Alec Ladonis,
Thank you very much for your help. I will try these suggestions of yours, particularly with the same sample.
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