| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Applied Surface Science | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session AS-WeA |
| Session: | Developments in Electron Spectroscopies for Non-Ideal Samples 2 |
| Presenter: | D.R. Baer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
As surface analytical methods, Auger electron and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopies (AES and XPS) are now approximately fifty years old and both are in wide use. Based on the rapidly growing number of publications, XPS has become the most widely applied method for surface chemical analysis. Although analysis is now mostly routine and quantitative as applied to many types of samples, it has taken considerable effort by many in the research and vendor communities to establish the instrument quality and implement new technologies and to establish the fundamental understanding and relevant physical data needed to develop the accurate approaches to analysis that are now available. However, many modern materials have significant characterization requirements that extend beyond those available using many of the standard measurement and analysis approaches in routine use and as supplied by instrument vendors. In this talk we will look at the types of advances that have taken place over the past four decades and explore some of the issues that were identified that needed to be addressed along the way. Although many of these are now transparent to instrument users, some of them highlight the types of unexpected challenges that can arise when careful analysis is required. The roles that AES, XPS and other methods may play in meeting the significant analysis challenges presented by a new generations of organic, composite and other nanomaterials will be discussed. Among the issues that need to be considered are: sample preparation, mounting and analysis damage; in situ and time-dependent analysis; three dimensional structure information; rapid imaging; multimodal and functional characterization; coating uniformity and thickness; surface functionality; analysis speed and cost, and the nature and presence of very minor amounts of contamination. Many of these issues are not new, but the advanced materials now capable of being synthesized exaggerate some of the challenges and raise additional problems still to be addressed.
This talk has evolved from research programs, research conducted as part of the EMSL User Program (www.EMSL.PNL.gov), and interactions with colleagues from around the world. Portions of this work were performed using EMSL, a national scientific user facility sponsored by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) and located at PNNL. Aspects of the work have been supported by the DOE’s Offices of Basic Energy Science (BES) and Biological and Environmental Research (BER) and the NIEHS under Center grant U19 ES019544.