Loading X/Y Column Data Files

[New input filter: Files with the extension .tsf containing Tab Spaced File ASCII data in two columns are converted on a file by file basis rather than the directory of files described below. Note: if more than one file containing data is required in the same VAMAS file, the Convert and Merge option on the File Menu should be used to select more than one .tsf file.]

Columns of abscissa/ordinate pairs must be stored in files with a .dat file type. Any files that need to be loaded into the same VAMAS file should be collected into a sub-directory that contains only those ASCII files that are suitable for conversion through CasaXPS. Select the Convert toolbar button and move to the sub-directory containing the .dat files. Type a filename for the new VAMAS file and add a .dat file extension to the new filename before pressing the Open pushbutton on the File Dialog window. Note that each file may contain more than one spectral region, where the regions are concatenated using a blank line to separate the spectra.

The default input mode assumes the abscissa is in binding energy and that the X-ray anode is Aluminium. To change these settings additional flags may be specified after the filename (Figure 1) where “–anode Mg” specifies a Magnesium anode for the X-ray source and “–energy KE” informs CasaXPS that the abscissa is kinetic energy rather than binding energy. All the .dat files in the directory shown in Figure 1 will be entered into the same VAMAS file. Names, element/transition, comments and other ISO-14976 fields may be modified after the data has been loaded into CasaXPS via toolbar buttons.

Figure 1: Loading a set of .dat files through the Convert Dialog Window. Note that the default settings for the energy scale (BE) and X-ray anode (Al) are over-ridden by explicitly entering “–anode Mg” and “–energy KE” after the filename.