Probing buried interfaces by combination of x-ray diffraction (sxrd) and hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (haxpes, up to 15kev)

In this contribution we present for the first time simultaneous combination of Surface X-Ray diffraction (SXRD) and Hard X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES, photoelectrons with kinetic energy up to 15 KeV). Thanks to the simultaneous capability to detect the diffracted photons and the ejected photoelectrons, the developed experimental set-up offers a unique opportunity to obtain, on the same sample region and under identical experimental conditions, structural, electronic and chemical properties of the studied systems. Due to the high penetration depth of X-rays and the large escape depth of high energy photoelectrons (15 KeV kinetic energy) surfaces, bulk and buried interfaces are accessible in a non-destructive way. Its implementation at the Spanish CRG beamline (SpLine) at the European synchrotron radiation facility (ESRF) offers an exceptional tool capable to determine composition and structural profiles over a depth of several 10s of nanometers. A huge 2S+3D diffractometer house an ultra-high vacuum vessel equipped with a high energy analyzer. The set-up has been constructed that simultaneously fulfils the requirements for HAXPES and SXRD. Special effort has been devoted to develop a novel electron analyzer, capable of working at very high as well as low kinetic energies (from few eV up to 15 KeV). The first results are presented demonstrating the high efficiency of the proposed technique for structural, electronic and chemical properties determination.