X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) depth profiling

XPS depth profiling is the alternating between ion gun etching cycles and XPS analysis cycles.

The technique provides semi-quantitative information on the elemental composition (at.%) as a function of depth. The binding and electronic states of atoms can also be analyzed as a function of depth.

XPS depth profiling is a destructive technique with an analysis area diameter ranging from 10 µm to several 100 µm.