Practical energy scale calibration procedure for auger electron spectrometers using a spectrometer offset function

In order to share AES spectral data and to develop an Auger spectra database, a practical and simple procedure for calibratiing the energy scale of Auger electron spectrometers has been developed. The procedure is based on the use of a spectrometer offset function, which enables transformation of measurements on the uncalibrated energy scale to a Fermi‐level‐referenced energy scale. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this calibration method, a round‐robin test involving twelve spectrometers of various types has been performed. From a comparison of Ni L 3 VV and M 3 VV peak positions, it was found that the scatter among the measurements after calibration was reduced to 20–30% of the scatter before calibration.