Use of angle-resolved XPS to determine depth profiles based on Fick's second law of diffusion: description of method and simulation study

An iterative algorithm is proposed to extract depth profiles based on Fick's second law of diffusion in a multi-element system from data supplied by angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS). Parameters related to the concentration profiles are obtained by fitting the experimental angle-dependent relative photoelectron intensities to predictions from the algorithm. The use of relative instead of absolute photoelectron intensities eliminates error due to changes in absolute photoelectron intensities resulting from the change of system geometries in angle-resolved experiments. Simulations using an infinite source diffusion model have been conducted to study the influence of errors in the raw data and to demonstrate the robustness of the algorithm. The algorithm is tested based on preliminary experimental ARXPS data from a chemically treated polymer film. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.