QUANTITATIVE AES - VI - BACKSCATTERING AND BACKGROUNDS - AN ANALYSIS OF ELEMENTAL SYSTEMATICS AND CORRECTIONS OF ABSOLUTE INTENSITY

An analysis is made of the backscattered background in true spectra fr om an AES digital Auger database in order to understand the systematic s with atomic number. This is important for modelling details of the s pectra and for determining the peak areas for Auger electron intensiti es. It is shown that the shape of the background in the emission energ y range near 2500 eV, for spectra using electron beams of 5 or 10 keV energy, are accurately described by an exponential. This exponential h as a characteristic energy of 1988 eV for 3 less than or equal to Z le ss than or equal to 83, for a 5 keV beam, but is a more complex functi on of Z, the atomic number, for a 10 keV beam. The absolute intensitie s at 2000 eV emission energy for the 5 keV beam and 2500 eV emission e nergy for the 10 keV beam are described by analytical functions, the d eviations from which are 5% and 6%, respectively, attributed mainly to the effects of sample roughness. These deviations may be used to corr ect the measured databank Auger electron intensities generated using 5 keV and 10 keV electron beams, The ratio of these corrected intensiti es agrees with theory to 0.99 +/- 0.05. Without the roughness correcti on derived from this study of backgrounds, this ratio deteriorates to 1.02 +/- 0.07. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.