Abstract
Electron energy loss sp ectroscopy (EELS) analyzes the excitations
o f valence or core electro n s to unoccupied states in the solid or
to higher energies w hen an electron b eam p asses through a thin
specim en. It provides a m easu rem en t o f the chem ical com position,valence, bonding, electro n ic stru cture, d ielectric prop erties, and
even m agnetic p ro p erties o f th e m aterials. Com bined w ith the
pow er o f the ab erratio n -corrected scanning tran sm ission electron
m icroscope (STEM ), STEM -EELS is rapidly developing to be the
m ethod o f choice for unraveling stru cture/ property relations at the
atom ic scale and w ith single-atom sensitivity. This b ook chapter
covers the b asic principles o f EELS and issu es concerning spatial
resolution and localization o f the signal and p resen ts a num ber o f
applications to nan ostru ctu res and com plex oxides.