XPS study of multilayer multicomponent films

• Published in: Applied surface science Vol. 427; no. A; pp. 711 - 721
• Main Authors: Lubenchenko, Alexander V., Batrakov, Alexander A., Pavolotsky, Alexey B., Lubenchenko, Olga I., Ivanov, Dmitriy A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.01.2018
• Subjects: Chemical and phase analysis; Depth profiling; Niobium oxide; XPS; XPS background subtracting; XPS line decomposition; XPS; Chemical and phase analysis; Niobium oxide; Depth profiling; XPS background subtracting; XPS line decomposition
• ISSN: 0169-4332; 1873-5584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2017.07.256

•Chemical and phase depth profiling analysis of niobium suboxide thin films.•Background subtraction accounting for depth non-uniformity of inelastic scattering.•Accurate line decomposition into peaks based on Gauss and Doniach-Sunjic convolution.•Quality criterion for assessing of line decomposition accuracy.•Formula derived for layer thickness extraction for multi-element, multi-layer sample. In the paper, we propose an XPS-based quantitative method for depth profile analysis of chemical and phase composition of multi-component and multi-layer samples. The method includes: (1) new method for background subtraction accounting for depth non-uniformity of electron energy losses; (2) new method for photoelectron line decomposition into elementary peaks, which accounts for physical nature of the decomposition parameters; (3) joint solving of both background subtraction and photoelectron line decomposition problems; (4) criterion for assessing of line decomposition accuracy; (5) simple formula for layer thickness extraction for multi-element and multi-layer sample. We apply the developed method for analysis of multilayer niobium oxide and sub-oxide films before and in course of ion milling.