Terminology and Vocabulary are effectively the same. The ISO committee in Switzerland has released Document ISO 18115-1:2013(E) titled “Surface chemical analysis – Vocabulary”. This vocabulary document includes terms and phrases recommended to be used in the fields of: XPS, Auger, UPS, SIMS, GDS, LEIS, RBS and other methods.
The vocabulary of XPS and surface chemistry is extensive. There are many “terms” and “phrases” that describe the features and phenomena produced by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. The XPS Library is making various drawings, graphs and charts to help beginners to understand XPS and XPS terms by using illustrations with names or brief explanations.
The ISO document defines “XPS” as the following:
Item 3.23
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
XPS
method in which an electron spectrometer (item 4.190) is used to measure the energy distribution of
photoelectrons and Auger electrons (item 4.37) emitted from a surface (item 4.458) irradiated by X-ray photons
Note 1 to entry: X-ray sources in common use are unmonochromated Al Kα and Mg Kα X-rays at 1486,6 eV, and 1253,6 eV, respectively. Modern instruments also use monochromated Al Kα X-rays. Some instruments make use of various X-ray sources with other anodes (4.27) or of synchrotron radiation (4.465).
The ISO document defines “Adventitious Carbon Referencing” as the following:
Item 4.4
adventitious carbon referencing
<XPS>
determining the charging potential (4.103) of a particular sample from a comparison of the experimentally determined C 1s binding energy (4.82), arising from adsorbed hydrocarbons on the sample, with a standard binding energy value
Note 1 to entry: See Fermi level referencing (4.212) and internal carbon referencing (4.257).
Note 2 to entry: A nominal value of 285,0 eV is often used for the binding energy of the relevant C 1s peak, although some analysts prefer specific values in the range 284,6 eV to 285,2 eV, depending on the nature of the substrate. This method does not determine the true charging potential (4.103) since the true binding energy of the adsorbed hydrocarbons is not known.
Note 3 to entry: Different sample charging (4.392) potentials can occur on different areas on the surface (4.458), or at different depths, arising, for example, from sample inhomogeneities or non-uniform intensity of the incidentradiation flux (4.221)