Scanning transmission x-ray microscopy experiment cartoon 

This cartoon is of a scanning transmission x-ray microscopy experiment, using an image of a two-polymer mix thin film. The NEXAFS data around the carbon K-edge are simulated, but loosely based on the real data to be found in "Simultaneous Surface and Bulk Imaging of Polymer Blends with X-ray Spectromicroscopy" by C.R. McNeill and B. Watts, Macromol. Rapid Commun. 31 (2010) 1706. The image of the heterogeneous film comes likewise from this paper. 

The cartoon shows the change in photon energy (indicated by the change in colour of the incident focussed radiation) and the plotting out of transmission data as a function of this energy for the first half row of the STXM map. Thereafter, the scan moves forward one pixel step per frame in the animation. Note that for the lighter (higher-transmission) regions, the overall transmission curve is (obviously) higher and the absorption feature at approximately 284.35 eV grows, associated with one polymer type. The low-transmission regions are associated with higher concentrations of the second polymer type, with its strong absorption feature centred at approximately 285.1 eV.