SEDL / STP / STP643-EB / STP25598S

How Quantitative is Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis?—An Evaluation of the Significant Factors

Wagner, CD
Consultant in surface analysis, Menlo Park, Calif

Pages: 16    Published: Jan 1978

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Abstract

The technique of dividing photoelectron line areas by elemental sensitivity factors or standard intensities can be applied to single-phase systems but not to multiple-phase systems. Elements other than transition metals can be determined with a standard deviation of 10 percent if photoelectrons of similar energy are used. Larger errors result from using lines of widely different energies because of variations in mean free path ratios among materials, and, more importantly, surface contamination. Transition metals pose special problems because of the prevalence of multielectron processes.