ENHANCED RESOLUTION OF DEPTH PROFILES USING 2-DIMENSIONAL XPS DATA

It is shown that the accuracy by which a concentration-depth profile c an be estimated from the inelastic background of an XPS spectrum is dr amatically improved by using two-dimensional (2D) data. The energy los s distribution of the photoelectrons for several values of the detecti on angle, or the energy of the excitation source, are treated as a sin gle 2D data set. The resolution of the depth profile estimated from th is set is far better than can be obtained from any single XPS spectrum .