Hey there,
I need to find out the thickness of metal oxide layer on a metal using XPS data. How do I do this? Is there any free tool to find this out? And what is the logic used for the calculation?
regards
You can do this in one of three ways.
1) Sputter profile while measuring the O 1s and metal peaks. This requires that your instrument can do sputter profiling and that it is properly calibrated for such work on the materials-system that you have.
2) Perform angle resolved XPS. This requires that your film is less than a few 100s of nm and that your instrument geometry supports proper angle-resolved measurements by design.
3) Use the mean free path differences of the O 1s and various metal peaks. This again requires that your film is thin (even less so than above).
The details behind all three methods are well-documented in technical articles and how-to resources, both on the Web and in hard journal or book resources. The third option is generally a first-estimate (less robust) compared to the other two. Folks otherwise swear by 1 or 2 depending on their personal experience/bias and/or the system at hand.
As for "free" tool ... The XPS instrument will have options for 1. For 2 and 3, you have to collect the data and use a data analysis package (Igor Pro, MatLab, or alternative yet equivalent "free" software).
Hello,
Good day
You may calculate the thickness of the native oxide film on the surface of your specimens using the expression given in the following paper
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229610905_An_ESCA_method_for_determining_the_oxide_thickness_on_aluminum_alloys
Happy New Year
Article An ESCA method for determining the oxide thickness on aluminum alloys
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