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Morphology, surface roughness, electron inelastic and quasielastic scattering in elastic peak electron spectroscopy of polymers
Author(s) -
Lesiak B.,
Kosiński A.,
Nowakowski R.,
Kövér L.,
Tóth J.,
Varga D.,
Cserny I.,
Sulyok A.,
Gergely G.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
surface and interface analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1096-9918
pISSN - 0142-2421
DOI - 10.1002/sia.2592
Subject(s) - electron energy loss spectroscopy , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , electron spectroscopy , inelastic scattering , atomic physics , elastic scattering , electron , chemistry , spectroscopy , surface roughness , materials science , molecular physics , scattering , nuclear magnetic resonance , physics , optics , composite material , quantum mechanics
In elastic peak electron spectroscopy (EPES), the nearest vicinity of elastic peak in the low kinetic energy region reflects electron inelastic and quasielastic processes. Incident electrons produce surface excitations, inducing surface plasmons, with the corresponding loss peaks separated by 1–20 eV energy from the elastic peak. In this work, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and helium pycnometry are applied for determining surface atomic composition and bulk density, whereas atomic force microscopy (AFM) is applied for determining surface morphology and roughness. The component due to electron recoil on hydrogen atoms can be observed in EPES spectra for selected primary electron energies. Simulations of EPES predict a larger contribution of the hydrogen component than observed experimentally, where hydrogen deficiency is observed. Elastic peak intensity is influenced more strongly by surface morphology (roughness and porosity) than by surface excitations and quasielastic scattering of electrons by hydrogen atoms. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.