How to Process Zillions of Spectra from Spectral Imaging Datasets? From Phase-Mapping to Bulk-Chemistry on Micron- to Centimeter Scale Using PARC

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) combined with microanalysis is widely used for characterization of solid materials. With the current generation of hardware, 1) the intense Field Emission Gun beams, 2) Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis system using Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) and 3) the fast acquisition hardware technology, the chemical information from each pixel in the SEM field can be acquired within microseconds. In other words, for a typical field of 512x384 pixels a Spectral Image (SI) of sufficient quality for quantitative analysis can be obtained in five minutes. The greatest challenge now is how most efficiently to extract maximum information out of all these zillions of spectra. At CRC we have developed the post-processing software PARC for precisely this purpose.