Introduction
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has long been used to identify materials with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), which allows you to choose a region of interest and instantly determine its material composition. Additionally, backscattered electron imaging (BSE) visually aids the search for unique materials as the signal varies with atomic weight. A typical workflow of BSE imaging combined with point mode EDS analysis doesn’t always provide a compete characterization of the material of interest. BSE contrast can be poor if materials have similar atomic weight or the chemistry of the material is too complex, leading to potentially erroneous conclusions or an incomplete characterization. This would force you to run multiple analyses in order to obtain a more complete answer, or interpret the results based on previous assumptions. Thermo Scientific

ChemiPhase Software is a novel phase identification and quantification engine within Thermo Scientific™ ChemiSEM™ Technology, designed to address these challenges, identifying unique phases through a combination of advanced statistical analysis and the ChemiSEM SEMEDS platform. ChemiPhase Software helps you answer critical questions, including: what the composition is, how it is distributed, and how much of each phase is present. What is ChemiPhase Software? ChemiSEM Technology uses a big data approach to detect all statistically significant spectra within the acquired datacube. ChemiPhase Software then provides a simple probability for each pixel, indicating if it belongs to each of these spectra. This makes interpretation of complex samples much more straightforward and intuitive, as each pixel can only belong to a single phase.

Notably, ChemiPhase Software is a comprehensive, unbiased statistical engine. This avoids problems associated with traditional methods, which can yield erroneous results if unexpected elements are missed (i.e., due to overlapping peaks or insufficient intensities). Additionally, traditional phase determination is highly dependent on assumptions about the sample, whereas ChemiPhase analysis ensures that all instrument users will obtain the same result, even for challenging samples.