Assessing phase discrimination via the segmentation of an elemental energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy map: a case study of Bi2Te3 and Bi2Te2S.

The present case study critically assesses the efficacy of a previously proposed segmentation methodology as a means to discriminate phases via post-processing the image of an elemental map. In the Bi2Te2.5S0.5 multiphase compound, the reference spectra of the Bi2Te3 and Bi2Te2S phases are distinct enough to effectively distinguish two phases during map acquisition. Since the counts of the sulphur-K peak in the X-ray emission data are significantly higher for Bi2Te2S compared to Bi2Te3, the segmentation methodology exploits this variation and enables successful phase discrimination via post-processing the image of the elemental map.