TEST OF ELASTIC ELECTRON-SCATTERING CORRECTIONS FOR QUANTITATIVE XPS

Ratios of the experimental XPS peak intensities from seven metals were compared to two first-principle theories corresponding to neglecting and including the effects of elastic electron scattering, i.e. the com mon formalism and the Monte Carlo model, respectively, The theoretical peak intensities were found to change by an average of 14% as a resul t of elastic scattering, but the standard deviation from experiment wa s practically the same, namely similar to 15% for both theories. The d eviation between experiment and theory is found to be random when elas tic scattering is neglected, while a small systematic component is rev ealed when elastic scattering effects are included. The fact that no g eneral reduction is observed in the deviation between experiment and t heory is attributed to the error originating from parameters like the photoionization cross-sections and the inelastic electron mean free pa ths, These errors apparently overshadow to a large extent the improvem ents of including the effects of elastic electron scattering.