Evaluation of a simple correction for the hydrocarbon contamination layer in quantitative surface analysis by XPS

A simple method of correction of XPS data for the ubiquitous hydrocarbon contamination overlayer is described. The method uses only standard quantification algorithms and readily available reference data. The method is evaluated by comparison with the known stoichiometries of 11 simple oxygen-saturated inorganic compounds and one polymer prepared directly from the laboratory environment. Without correction, a mean error in quantification of ±8.2 relative % was found. After application of the correction, the mean error was reduced to ±5.6 relative %. An analysis of the results showed that after application of the correction, a significant proportion of the remaining error may have been due to thermal or radiation-induced oxygen loss from the compounds during measurement.