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Accuracy of the correction for a hydrocarbon contamination layer in routine quantitative XPS analysis of oxygen‐inert samples
Author(s) -
Zagorenko A.,
Beccat P.,
Huiban Y.,
Lynch J.
Publication year - 1995
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.740230309
Subject(s) - contamination , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , layer (electronics) , analytical chemistry (journal) , inert , oxygen , materials science , non blocking i/o , chemistry , environmental chemistry , nanotechnology , physics , nuclear magnetic resonance , ecology , organic chemistry , biology , biochemistry , catalysis
A procedure for determination of the reduced thickness of the contamination layer for oxygen‐inert samples was implemented. The correction algorithm is valid for the reduced thickness of a contamination layer x ≥ 0.3 ( x is expressed as the ratio of the layer thickness to the electron attenuation length in the contamination layer at energy 1 keV). It is shown that the linear background subtraction method traditionally used in XPS generally does not provide correct results. Application of an advanced experimental data treatment method with correction for the presence of a contamination layer to quantitative surface analysis of Al 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , GeO 2 , Fe 2 O 3 , NiO, CuO and NaF resulted in a decrease of the mean error of analysis from 27% using the elemental sensitivity factors approach to 5%.