First atomic EELS map acquired during volcano eruption
Paolo Longo, Ph.D., Gatan, Inc. Sample courtesy of Dr. P. Rice and Dr. T. Topuria at IBM (Almaden), San Jose, CA Microscope courtesy of Dr. Giuseppe Nicotra, IMM-CNR, Catania, Italy

First atomic EELS map acquired during volcano eruption

The lab where EELS maps were taken is situated at the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy. Mount Etna is the highest active volcano in Europe. The EELS elemental maps were taken at high speed during major volcano eruption, as shown in the volcano webcam photograph above the maps.

Methods

probe corrected ARM 200F TEM/STEM microscope
C-FEG emission gun
GIF Quantum® ER system
Sr L at 1940 eV (red); Ti L at 456 eV (green).
voltage: 200 kV
data taken in STEM mode
EELS core-loss spectrum (300–2300 eV) exposure time: 10 ms
beam current: 140 pA
total exposure time: <1 min