Testing and validating the improved estimation of the spectrometer-transmission function with UNIFIT 2022

Recent developments of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy using excitation energies different from the usual lab-sources Mg K alpha and Al K alpha, thus covering larger and different kinetic energy ranges, require more flexible approaches for determining the transmission function than the well-established ones using reference spectra. Therefore, the approach using quantified peak areas (QPA) was refined allowing a more precise estimation of the transmission function. This refinement was tested by comparing the results obtained with the new version with former calculations. Furthermore, the obtained transmission function was validated by comparing the results with a transmission function using the reference spectrum of polyethylene. Additionally, an ionic liquid was used as reference for estimating the transmission function at the energy-resolved HE-SGM beamline at BESSY II. Comparison between the measured and stoichiometric composition shows that a transmission function was determined, which allows a reasonable quantification.

Automated summary

Recent developments in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy require more flexible approaches to determine the transmission function, with the refinement of the quantified peak areas method allowing for a more precise estimation of the transmission function.