Modeling of complex surface structures for ARXPS

Angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS) has a great potential for nondestructive depth profiling in the nanometer thickness range. A method using computer simulation of ARXPS measurements is presented, which allows systematic studies on surfaces with artificial spatial inhomogeneity in the nanometer-range. Investigations of rough surfaces with varied structure sizes show that inhomogeneous structures can be increasingly better described by homogeneous smooth layers when lowering the typical length dimensions. In parallel, the obtained effective amount of overlayer material (or effective overlayer thickness), is systematically lower than the real one. Limitations of the 'magic-angle concept' are derived. Possible improvement of the method is discussed by consideration of elastic scattering. Copyright (C) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.