Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
5423503 Surface Science 2010 12 Pages PDF
Abstract

We present an analysis of the dependence of the backscattering correction factor (BCF) in Auger-electron spectroscopy (AES) on the analyzer acceptance angle. Illustrative BCF calculations are presented for Pd M5N45N45 Auger electrons as a function of primary-electron energy for primary-electron angles of incidence, θ0, of 0° and 80° and for various values of the analyzer acceptance angle. It was necessary to generalize the BCF definition for the case of an analyzer with an arbitrarily large acceptance angle; this was done with a new function, the integral emission depth distribution function. BCFs calculated from an advanced model of electron transport in the surface region of the Pd sample varied weakly with analyzer half-cone angle for θ0 = 0° but more strongly for θ0 = 80° where there were BCF differences varying between 19% at a primary energy of 1 keV and 6% at a primary energy of 5 keV. These BCF differences are due in part to variations of the BCF with emission angle and in part to variations of the density of inner-shell ionizations within the information depth for the detected Auger electrons. The latter variations are responsible for differences larger than 10% between BCFs from the widely used simplified BCF model and those from the more accurate advanced model for primary energies less than about 5 keV for θ0 = 80°. For normal incidence of the primary beam, differences greater than 10% between BCFs from the simplified and advanced models were found for primary energies between 1 keV and 4 keV. These BCF differences indicate that the simplified model can provide only approximate BCF values. In addition, the simplified model does not provide any BCF dependence on Auger-electron emission angle or analyzer acceptance angle.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Chemistry Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
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