Analysis of X-ray images and spectra (aXis2000): A toolkit for the analysis of X-ray spectromicroscopy data

Spectromicroscopy refers to analytical methods that combine imaging and spectroscopy to provide detailed, spatially resolved analytical information about a sample, such as the type and quantitative spatial distributions of chemical components, geometric or magnetic alignment information, crystal structure, etc. The analysis of X-ray images and spectra (aXis2000) software described in this work provides a set of routines within a single, integrated, graphical-oriented package to read, display, manipulate and analyze spectromicroscopy data, with particular focus on soft X-ray spectromicroscopy methods such as scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM), X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM), scanning photoelectron X-ray microscopy (SPEM) and transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM). Here, this free software is described and compared to other software that can provide similar or complementary capabilities. Examples of spectromicroscopic analyses using advanced features of aXis2000 are provided.

Automated summary

Spectromicroscopy combines imaging and spectroscopy to analyze samples, providing detailed spatially resolved information about chemical components, alignment, and crystal structure. The aXis2000 software described in this paper allows for the analysis and manipulation of spectromicroscopy data, focusing on soft X-ray methods such as STXM, XPEEM, SPEM, and TXM. Other software with similar capabilities is compared, and examples of spectromicroscopic analyses using aXis2000 are presented.