High resolution EELS using monochromator and high performance spectrometer: comparison of V2O5 ELNES with NEXAFS and band structure calculations.

Using single crystal V2O5 as a sample, we tested the performance of the new aberration corrected GATAN spectrometer on a monochromatised 200 kV FEG FEI (S)TEM. The obtained V L and O K ELNES were compared with that obtained in a common GATAN GIF and that in the new spectrometer, without monochromatised beam. The performance of the new instrumentation is impressive: recorded with an energy-resolution of 0.22 eV, the V L(3) edge reveals all the features due to the bulk electronic structure, that are also revealed in near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) with a much higher energy-resolution (0.08 eV). All features of the ELNES and NEXAFS are in line with a theoretical spectrum derived from band-structure calculations.