Comparison between EDS and WDS

Comparison between EDS and WDS
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Table 3110. Comparison between EDS and WDS techniques.

	EDS	WDS
Full name	Eenergy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy	Wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy
Principle	Measures the energy of X-ray photon	Determine the wavelength of X-ray
Spectrum range	Measures across a broad range of energies in the spectrum	Measures specific regions within the spectrum
Efficiency	More efficient for an unknown specimen	More efficient for the concentration of specific, known element
Speed	Quicker for large energy ranges	Slower for large energy ranges
Throughput of X-rays	Lower	Higher
Spatial resolution	The same
Energy resolution	Lower: ~ 125 eV	Higher: ~5-10 eV
Energy resolution	EDS and WDS profiles of BaTiO₃. The green spectrum presents a standard EDS of of BaTiO₃, while the red one presents a standard WDS. EDS shows the overlapped Ba L_α-Ti K_α and Ba L_β1-Ti K_β peaks.
Sensitivity	OK	Better due to separation of overlapping peaks
Peak-to-background ratio	Lower	Higher
Specimen limitation	Gases cannot be analyzed and liquids are limited to those that have very limited volatility and will not contaminate the column and specimen chamber because specimens must be exposed to vacuum conditions.
Hardware	Attached to electron microscopes

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