HAXPES: Inelastic background for characterization of nanostructured materials

Abstract

Analysis of the spectrum of inelastically scattered electrons in XPS has been used for decades to determine the structure of materials on the nanoscale. Using the higher photon energies available in HAXPES, the method was recently shown to determine structures rather accurately with a more than 100 nm probing depth. In this paper, these HAXPES applications are briefly reviewed. Only two parameters are required for the analysis, namely, the inelastic mean free path and the cross section for inelastic electron scattering. We also discuss in detail how these parameters are best selected.