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Quantitative analysis of Yb 4d photoelectron spectrum of metallic Yb
Author(s) -
Pauly N.,
Yubero F.,
Tougaard S.
Publication year - 2018
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.6402
Subject(s) - x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , excitation , atomic physics , photoemission spectroscopy , electron , spectral line , intensity (physics) , chemistry , physics , nuclear magnetic resonance , optics , quantum mechanics , astronomy
The measured Yb 4d 3/2 intensity is larger than the Yb 4d 5/2 in X‐ray photoelectron (XPS) emission of metallic Yb, which is unexpected. The shape and intensity of photoelectron peaks are strongly affected by extrinsic excitations due to electron transport out of the surface (including bulk and surface effects) and to intrinsic excitations due to the sudden creation of the static core hole. To quantitatively extract from experimental XPS the primary excitation spectrum (ie, the initial excitation process) of the considered transition, these effects must be included within the theoretical description. The combined effect of both extrinsic and intrinsic excitations can be described by an effective energy‐differential inelastic electron scattering cross section for XPS evaluated by a dielectric response model with the dielectric function as only input. Then, using this cross section, a direct evaluation of the primary excitation spectrum is performed by standard peak shape analysis for thick homogeneous samples. We use this approach in the present paper to determine the Yb 4d photoemission spectrum for metallic Yb. We show that the unexpected larger intensity of Yb 4d 3/2 compared to 4d 5/2 can be fully accounted for by our model and that the total spectrum consists of a sum of symmetric primary excitation peaks.