Auger electron spectroscopy from elemental standards. III. Backgrounds and peak‐to‐background ratios

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AbstractBackground levels and Auger peak‐to‐background (P/B) ratios have been measured for the elements Si, Cu, Ag and W in two different machines. The relative contributions of secondary electrons and primary back‐scattered electrons to the background under the Auger peak, as a function of probe energy E0 and incident angle θ0, have been studied, and the trends are discussed. The P/B ratio is roughly constant for θ0 ≤ 60°, which is useful for minimizing topographic effects in scanning Auger microscopy. At high E0 and θ0, secondary electrons dominate the background and P/B tends to a constant. The ratio P/B1/2 is a measure of detectability; it decreases only slowly with E0 because of the reduction in back‐scattered background. This is favourable for Auger microprobes operating at higher E0 than presently available.