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New technique for the simultaneous correction of topographical and backscattering artefacts in electron‐excited Auger spectroscopy and microscopy
Author(s) -
Crone M.,
Barkshire I. R.,
Prutton M.
Publication year - 1994
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.740211207
Subject(s) - auger , auger electron spectroscopy , atomic number , spectroscopy , auger effect , excited state , electron , chemistry , energy (signal processing) , atomic physics , analytical chemistry (journal) , computational physics , materials science , physics , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , chromatography
In order to relate an Auger signal to the atomic concentration in the surface of a solid, it is well known that corrections have to be made for matrix effects. Also, corrections may be needed to compensate for the effects of artefacts caused by properties of the sample other than the concentration of different elements. Large artefacts can be caused by the surface topography and subsurface composition variations often present in ‘real’ samples. This paper reports a new correction scheme that enables the quantitative analysis of samples with a structure for which no prior knowledge exists. The scheme uses the ratio of the Auger peak height to a background count rate above the energy of all significant Auger features, combined with a linear correction invoving the atomic number of the substrate and the Auger backscattering factor. Inhomogeneous samples with angle of incidence variations from 0° to 45° and an arbitrary atomic number can be analysed with an accuracy of ∼5 at.% using this method. Limitations exist for thin unsupported films.