The most intense EELS signal from gold (Au) can be obtained from Au M_4,5-edges at 2206 eV in the high core-loss spectrum, and the optimized EDS signal from Au is obtained from Au L_α1 (9.711 keV) and Au L_α2 (9.628 keV). With such EELS and EDS signals with the same dwell time (e.g. in simultaneous EDS and EELS measurements), for a thin TEM sample the EELS signal is more than twice as sensitive as the EDS data and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for EELS measurement is four times better than that for EDS data.

The second choice for Au EDS elemental analysis is that the Au M_α line at 2.12 kV can be used.

Table 1357a lists the comparison of EELS and EDS measurements on thin TEM samples with Au elements. The comparisons are based on the same data acquisition condition, consequently the same electron dose used.

As discussed on page4650, X-ray absorption is a function of the energy of X-rays. Low energy peaks will be more strongly absorbed than high energies ones. For thick TEM samples, k-factor correction due to X-ray absorption is needed in order to accurately quantify EDS measurements. Table 1357b lists Au-examples of thicknesses at which the thin-film approximation is no longer valid due to X-ray absorption effects in specific materials.