TY - JOUR A1 - Unger, Wolfgang A1 - Stockmann, Jörg M. A1 - Senoner, Mathias A1 - Weimann, T. A1 - Bütefisch, S. A1 - Passiu, C. A1 - Spencer, N. D. A1 - Rossi, A. T1 - Introduction to lateral resolution and analysis area measurements in XPS JF - Journal of Vacuum Science Technology A N2 - Imaging and small-spot (small area) XPS have become increasingly important components of surface chemical analysis during the last three decades, and its use is growing. Some ambiguity in the use of terminology, understanding of concepts, and lack of appropriate reference materials leads to confusing and not always reproducible data. In this paper, it is shown that by using existing knowledge, appropriate test specimens, and standardized approaches, problems of comparability and such reproducibility issues recently observed for XPS data reported in the scientific literature can be overcome. The standardized methods of ISO 18516:2019, (i) the straight-edge, (ii) the narrow-line, and (iii) the grating method, can be used to characterize and compare the lateral resolution achieved by imaging XPS instruments and are described by reporting examples. The respective measurements are made using new test specimens. When running an XPS instrument in the small-spot (small area) mode for a quantitative analysis of a feature of interest, the question arises as to what contribution to the intensity originates from outside the analysis area. A valid measurement approach to control the intensity from outside the nominal analysis area is also described. As always, the relevant resolution depends on the specific question that needs to be addressed. The strengths and limitations of methods defining resolution are indicated. KW - Imaging XPS KW - Lateral resolution KW - Analysis area measurements KW - Small-spot XPS PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0000398 VL - 38 IS - 5 SP - 053206 AN - OPUS4-51394 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Reed, B. P. A1 - Cant, D.J.H. A1 - Spencer, J. A1 - Carmona-Carmona, A. J. A1 - Bushell, A. A1 - Herrara-Gómez, A. A1 - Kurokawa, A. A1 - Thissen, A. A1 - Thomas, A.G. A1 - Britton, A.J. A1 - Bernasik, A. A1 - Fuchs, A. A1 - Baddorf, A. P. A1 - Bock, B. A1 - Thellacker, B. A1 - Cheng, B. A1 - Castner, D.G. A1 - Morgan, D.J. A1 - Valley, D. A1 - Willneff, E.A. A1 - Smith, E.F. A1 - Nolot, E. A1 - Xie, F. A1 - Zorn, G. A1 - Smith, G.C. A1 - Yasukufu, H. A1 - Fenton, J. L. A1 - Chen, J. A1 - Counsell, J..D.P. A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Gaskell, K.J. A1 - Artyushkova, K. A1 - Yang, L. A1 - Zhang, L. A1 - Eguchi, M. A1 - Walker, M. A1 - Hajdyla, M. A1 - Marzec, M.M. A1 - Linford, M.R. A1 - Kubota, N. A1 - Cartazar-Martínez, O. A1 - Dietrich, P. A1 - Satoh, R. A1 - Schroeder, S.L.M. A1 - Avval, T.G. A1 - Nagatomi, T. A1 - Fernandez, V. A1 - Lake, W. A1 - Azuma, Y. A1 - Yoshikawa, Y. A1 - Shard, A.G. T1 - Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards interlaboratory study on intensity calibration for x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy instruments using low-density polyethylene JF - Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A N2 - We report the results of a Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards interlaboratory study on the intensity scale calibration of x-ray photoelectron spectrometers using low-density polyethylene (LDPE) as an alternative material to gold, silver, and copper. An improved set of LDPE reference spectra, corrected for different instrument geometries using a quartz-monochromated Al Kα x-ray source, was developed using data provided by participants in this study. Using these new reference spectra, a transmission function was calculated for each dataset that participants provided. When compared to a similar calibration procedure using the NPL reference spectra for gold, the LDPE intensity calibration method achieves an absolute offset of ∼3.0% and a systematic deviation of ±6.5% on average across all participants. For spectra recorded at high pass energies (≥90 eV), values of absolute offset and systematic deviation are ∼5.8% and ±5.7%, respectively, whereas for spectra collected at lower pass energies (<90 eV), values of absolute offset and systematic deviation are ∼4.9% and ±8.8%, respectively; low pass energy spectra perform worse than the global average, in terms of systematic deviations, due to diminished count rates and signal-to-noise ratio. Differences in absolute offset are attributed to the surface roughness of the LDPE induced by sample preparation. We further assess the usability of LDPE as a secondary reference material and comment on its performance in the presence of issues such as variable dark noise, x-ray warm up times, inaccuracy at low count rates, and underlying spectrometer problems. In response to participant feedback and the results of the study, we provide an updated LDPE intensity calibration protocol to address the issues highlighted in the interlaboratory study. We also comment on the lack of implementation of a consistent and traceable intensity calibration method across the community of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) users and, therefore, propose a route to achieving this with the assistance of instrument manufacturers, metrology laboratories, and experts leading to an international standard for XPS intensity scale calibration. KW - X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy KW - Transmission function KW - Intensity scale calibration KW - Reference spectra KW - Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) PY - 2020 DO - https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0000577 VL - 38 IS - 6 SP - 063208 AN - OPUS4-51655 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -