IONIZATION SPECTROSCOPY OF SURFACES

Abstract

A technique is described for the analysis of surface composition on the basis of characteristic loss features associated with electron impact ionization of inner atomic levels. The method involves separating the characteristic loss spectrum from the total secondary emission spectrum by superimposing a small oscillation on the primary beam energy and detecting only those features which fluctuate at the same frequency. Ionization spectroscopy is shown to have a number of inherent advantages over conventional Auger spectroscopy.