Evaluation of the surface contribution to disorder broadened core level XPS spectra in CuPd alloys

High resolution measurement of the core level photoelectron spectra of disordered alloys of CuPd have revealed a broadening contribution arising from compositional disorder [Phys. Rev. Lett. 78 (1997) 3777]. The effect has also been observed in disordered alloys of CuPt [J. Electron. Spectrosc. 107 (2000) 185] and CuZn [J. Phys. Condens. Matter 11 (1999) 843 1]. In determining the magnitude of the disorder broadening contribution to a core level lineshape, it is necessary to allow for the contribution from the surface shifted components. In this work the contribution from surface shifted components of the core level spectra is evaluated for the CuxPd((x-1)) (x = 0.88, 0.5, 0.12) system from high resolution measurements of the spectra obtained at take off angles of 90degrees and 10degrees. The results show that the presence of surface components does not compromise the determination of the bulk contribution to disorder broadening of core level lines. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.