Influence of elastic scattering of photoelectrons on angle-resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

The validity of the electron effective attenuation length database developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is examined for x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurement of HfO2 (2.7 nm)/SiON (0.8 nm)/Si. The angular dependences of photoelectron yields are calculated using the NIST database and composition depth profiles measured by high-resolution Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy. The calculated result reproduces the observed XPS result fairly well even at larger emission angles up to 80 degrees, indicating that the accuracy of XPS depth profiling can be improved using the NIST database. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.