A Method for Evaluating the Thickness of Ultrathin Coatings from X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Data

摘要

A method is proposed for evaluating the thickness of ultrathin films from x-ray photoelectron spec-troscopy data with allowance made for photoelectron elastic scattering in solids and nondipolar transitions in photoionization. Two procedures for varying the photoelectron path in a film are examined: by rotating the analyzer and the sample. Both approaches have significant advantages over the straight-line approximation, which does not take into account elastic scattering. Experimental data are simulated using the Monte Carlo method. The two procedures ensure roughly equal accuracies (about 6%) in reproducing the thicknesses of surface films used in simulations.