Compositional analysis of a material using electron microscopy is largely based around energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and wavelength dispersive spectroscopy (WDS). Both use the characteristic X-rays released by the sample during analysis but utilise different aspects of them; EDS measures the energy of the characteristic X-rays whilst WDS measures their wavelength.
Although PEMC runs standardised EDS (which is an improvement upon qualitative EDS often used in electron microscopy), WDS is inherently more accurate and is recommended for our users who require improved precision and the quantification of minor (low abundance) elements.