Electron scattering correction of x-ray-excited Ni and Cu KLL Auger spectra emitted from thin and thick metallic samples

High-energy Cu and Ni KLL Anger lines, excited by Mo and Cu bremsstrahlung, were measured for polycrystalline metallic samples as web as for thin (10 nm) films deposited onto Si substrates, to determine the respective Anger t ransition energies and probabilities.(1) The spectra of homogeneous samples show a broad tail of inelastically scattered electrons, This tail is stron gly suppressed in the thin-film spectra, These spectra have been subjected to a recently proposed background subtraction procedure,(2) accurately acco unting for the details of the signal electron emission process (depth distr ibution of the emitting species, elastic scattering, experimental geometry, etc.). As a result, the inelastic tail is removed in the background-correc ted spectra, Comparison of the spectra from the thin films and the homogene ous samples after background correction provides an experimental test of th e background subtraction procedure. In our case these corrected spectra are essentially identical, proving the consistency of the method applied, Copy right (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.