AVS 47th International Symposium
    Material Characterization Thursday Sessions
       Session MC-ThA

Paper MC-ThA10
Determining Area Selectivity in Small-Area XPS Analysis@footnote 1@

Thursday, October 5, 2000, 5:00 pm, Room 207

Session: Evolving Technologies in Surface Analysis
Presenter: D.R. Baer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Authors: D.R. Baer, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
M.H. Engelhard, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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For many real world applications, the ability of new XPS instrumentation to examine small features can be a tremendous advantage. Most users and vendors define the spatial resolution of these instruments in a similar relatively simple and useful fashion involving resolution of a sharply defined edge or grid. However, it can be useful and is sometimes important to know the area of a sample that actually contributes to the XPS spectra measured. We have found that measurements on well defined "dots" of a material on a substrate provide a useful experimental approach for determining the area of a specimen that contributes to a small area XPS measurement. The method provides a way to verify instrument operation and set up conditions and the adequacy of specimen alignment procedures for small area analysis. Data collected from a Phi Quantum 2000 and a Kratos Axis 165 demonstrate that the method can provide information about signal generated from regions outside of an intended analysis area. The method also demonstrates that commonly used methods of defining resolution produce values that can be 2 or 3 times smaller than the diameter of the area truly analyzed by a spectrometer. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ This work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Geosciences Program. The measurements were made in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE User facility operated for the USDOE by Battelle Memorial Institute.