How do you know you have located all the elements present in your SmartMap?

Finding a small inclusion or phase in a smart map can be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

These small phases in a smart map can easily be missed in the sum spectra, because a small phase will only contribute a small number of counts to the overall sum spectrum and as such can become hidden in the background. Unless we know what we are looking for how can we hope to find it? INCA’s spectrum examiner provides a neat solution to this problem by searching through all the pixels of a smart map and looking for regions with different composition. Once interesting regions have been located a blue plot is overlaid over the sum spectrum making it easy for the user to identify peaks that have been ‘buried’ in the sum spectra As such, it becomes possible to accurately locate all the elements present in your SmartMap without any prior knowledge of your sample.

The example below shows a complicated mineral sample and how spectrum examiner can be used to ensure all the elements present in your sample are located:

1.

During or after mapping your sample, select the element mapping form to view the sum spectrum.

2.

Click on the spectrum examiner button. INCA will look through the SmartMap data and accentuate regions of the spectrum where there is significant intensity variation within the field of view. A blue plot is then overlaid on these regions of the current spectrum. By scanning this new spectrum, peaks that have not been identified can easily be located.

3.

Once an unidentified peak has been located use the candidate elements tool to ID the peak and select the appropriate element to map (this is often easier if the lock to peaks function is turned off)

4.

View the element maps. In the example below a small silver particle is successfully located. Without knowing this particle was there, this would be impossible to find without the spectrum examiner tool.