There is an excellent paper on this topic by Nenad Stojilovic, Why Can’t We See Hydrogen in X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy? J. Chem. Educ., 2012, 89 (10), pp 1331–1332. DOI: 10.1021/ed300057j.

Below is just the last paragraph of this stimulating paper: "Hydrogen has no core electrons and, therefore, core−electron XPS is impossible. The H 1s electrons are valence electrons and as such participate in chemical bonding. Any signal from hydrogen would overlap with signals from excitation of valence electrons from other surface atoms. Namely, photoionization cross sections for valence electrons are also small and their binding energies significantly change with chemical environment. Also, the valence orbitals often appear in the spectra as broad bands. It is generally not possible to distinguish between H 1s valence electrons and valence electrons of other elements. Therefore, H 1s valence electrons are not useful in elemental identification using XPS method."

(PS. Please also refer to the other related question here :

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_anybody_give_the_details_that_why_hydrogen_is_not_present_in_EDX_SPECTRUM#view=55e24aa8614325338b8b45bc)

Hydrogen and helium are essentially impossible to detect by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS or ESCA). He is not normally present as a solid and even when present (implanted) in a solid its 1s orbital has a very small cross-section for photoemission. Hydrogen also has a extremely small photoelectron cross-section and suffers from having to share its only electron in forming compounds, which then resides in a valence-like orbital.

There is an excellent paper on this topic by Nenad Stojilovic, Why Can’t We See Hydrogen in X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy? J. Chem. Educ., 2012, 89 (10), pp 1331–1332. DOI: 10.1021/ed300057j.

Below is just the last paragraph of this stimulating paper: "Hydrogen has no core electrons and, therefore, core−electron XPS is impossible. The H 1s electrons are valence electrons and as such participate in chemical bonding. Any signal from hydrogen would overlap with signals from excitation of valence electrons from other surface atoms. Namely, photoionization cross sections for valence electrons are also small and their binding energies significantly change with chemical environment. Also, the valence orbitals often appear in the spectra as broad bands. It is generally not possible to distinguish between H 1s valence electrons and valence electrons of other elements. Therefore, H 1s valence electrons are not useful in elemental identification using XPS method."

(PS. Please also refer to the other related question here :

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_anybody_give_the_details_that_why_hydrogen_is_not_present_in_EDX_SPECTRUM#view=55e24aa8614325338b8b45bc)

In addition to the above, it should be noted that the UHV requirement for the XPS analysis makes it almost not possible to detect He in the sample.

XPS of Hydrogen and Helium are possible to obtain and were both published this year: https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.5022479 .

Hydrogen has no core electrons and, therefore, core−electron XPS is impossible. The H 1s electrons are valence electrons and as such participate in chemical bonding. Any signal from hydrogen would overlap with signals from excitation of valence electrons from other surface atoms. Namely, photoionization cross sections for valence electrons are also small and their binding energies significantly change with chemical environment. Also, the valence orbitals often appear in the spectra as broad bands. It is generally not possible to distinguish between H 1s valence electrons and valence electrons of other elements. Therefore, H 1s valence electrons are not useful in elemental identification using XPS method.