On calculating intensity from XPS spectra

The intensity calculation is the basis for all quantitative applications of electron spectroscopy. Unfortunately, some misinterpreted terms are used and correctly interpreted terms are misused in the overwhelming majority of publications in XPS, including most textbooks as well as accepted and proposed standards. Due to this mistake the number of the detected electrons is given as having dimension of energy (?) and also the formulas for calculating the peak area and its standard deviation are wrong. Since in all other spectroscopic fields the number of the detected particles is dimensionless, continuing this practice leads to isolating XPS from both other measurement sciences and theory, because the measured total intensity in XPS is simply not comparable to the ones derived with other spectroscopic methods or theoretically. Therefore, the basic measuring processes and terms are critically reviewed and their physically correct interpretation is given. This interpretation reveals that the error is hidden in the incorrect interpretation of both the measurement process and the measured quantity. It is shown that through using the correct interpretation both the dimensions of the intensity calculated from electron spectroscopic measurements as well as the formulas related to the intensity and its standard deviation will agree with all other spectroscopic fields.