TEM-EELS analyses of protactinium

Abstract

A fragment of metallic protactinium (Pa) has been studied using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) equipped with an electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) detector. Bright and dark field TEM images have been acquired, and selective area electron diffraction (SAED) has been used to study the crystal structures. The results showed the presence of domains both of metallic and of oxidized material that likely occurred during sample preparation. EELS edges have been collected for the first time for the oxide compounds and compared with those computed using many-electron atomic spectral methods.

Keywords

• protactinium
• EELS
• TEM
• electronic structure