Auger spectroscopic technique measuring the number of electrons emitted from a surface as a function of the energy level of those electrons

摘要

An improved technique in Auger electron spectroscopy which uses a standard detector which emits a voltage signal proportional to the number of electrons emitted from a surface of material under investigation at a particular energy level to which the detector is set. An improvement is in the manner of processing this voltage signal in order to ascertain the desired reading of number of electrons. The processing circuitry is electrically isolated from the rest of the system but is directly coupled to the detector. A baseline voltage signal is established at a lower edge of electron energy range of interest and that range has been scanned to determine the difference between detector signal output and the baseline output. The result is a faster and more accurate determination of detector voltage signal outputs over the region which can then better be used to determine the characteristics of the surface from which the electrons are being emitted.