| AVS 66th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Applied Surface Science Division | Monday Sessions |
| Session AS+BI+RA-MoM |
| Session: | Quantitative Surface Analysis I/Reproducibility Issues in Quantitative XPS |
| Presenter: | Lisa Swartz, Physical Electronics |
| Authors: | L. Swartz, Physical Electronics K. Artyushkova, Physical Electronics J.E. Mann, Physical Electronics B.W. Schmidt, Physical Electronics J.G. Newman, Physical Electronics |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Analysis of samples where lateral heterogeneities can be present at a variety of scales poses a challenging spectroscopic task. In routine applications of XPS spectroscopy, the analyst is usually acquiring spectra over a large area from multiple positions on the sample and derives conclusions on “representative” chemical composition from average atomic concentrations and standard deviations. However, if lateral heterogeneities existing at the surface have smaller physical dimensions as the analysis area, the conclusions on “representative” chemical composition derived from large area spectroscopy will be erroneous. For accurate structural analysis of heterogeneous materials, it is very important to understand the scale of heterogeneity beforehand, so that the analysis areas and the size of the X-ray probe used for analysis are chosen appropriately. Often, complimentary microscopic techniques, such as SEM, are performed before XPS analysis which addresses some of this challenge but does not allow analysis over the same area.
The ability to perform small area spectroscopy for studying the heterogeneity and physical dimensions of samples is critical for obtaining accurate information on sample structure. In this talk, we will show examples of inaccurate use of large area spectroscopy and discuss the experimental approach towards selecting the relationship between the X-ray size and physical scale of defects and heterogeneities at the surface required to obtain an accurate representation of heterogeneous sample structure.