After a successful peak fitting, the next step might well be to prepare your data for presentation (for reports or publications etc). There are a number of methods, depending on your preferred style.

Exporting image spectra

The simplest method is to simply export the images using the image options on the toolbar (Figure 1). From left to right you have options to copy the current image as a bitmap, copy a group of tiles as a bitmap, copy the current tile as a windows metafile (useful to copy into vector editing software), copy a group of tiles as a windows metafile or finally save the current tile as an EMF. Note these options may be greyed out if you have clicked on a VAMAS block (right hand side of the software), simply click on the spectra on the left hand side and they should become available for use.

You will copy everything current on the tile, including regions and components, so you may wish to use the options in ‘Display parameters’ (F6) to modify the image to suit your needs. Particularly useful is, assuming you are using the component index, the combine component index which can combine multiple peaks into a single envelope within the overall envelope. This is especially useful for complex fittings such as first row transition metals (figure 2) – here we can see a red envelope for Ni metal and a black envelope of NiO. Note: You can change the text that appears underneath all exported images by opening the root folder of your Casa directory, opening the CasaXPS.DEF subfolder and modifying the PrintFootNote text file.

If you have not come across component indexes before, you can find this in the quantification window in the components tab (Figure 3).

Exporting ASCII data

You may prefer to export your data into ASCII format to open in other softwares or to process the images as plot in EXCEL or the spreadsheet software of your choice. Click on a VAMAS block on the right hand side that you wish to export and you will be able to either copy or save the ASCII data using the tools highlighted in figure 4.

If we look at our Ni deconvolution again, we can see in figure 5 the exported data. We have kinetic and binding energy for our X-axis, and then headed columns for all of our peak fittings. Note that the highlighted columns represent the summation of the peaks with component indexes (Note: you must use component indexes other than -1 for this to appear in the ASCII data, a component index of -1 will tell Casa to ignore this peak in any combination).

There is a column representing the background, so this may be plotted alongside the data or use to background subtract the final data. We do not generally recommend doing this since backgrounds are an important part of XPS fitting, however for applications with minimal energy steps (e.g. low metal loadings which may often appear on sloped backgrounds) it can be a useful tool for improving the resultant image. If you wish to background subtract the data for your image, it is simpler to use the processing tool (Processing (F8) > Test Data > Background subtract (Figure 6)) as this will ensure that the exported ASCII data is already background subtracted and no further processing is required.

Exporting quantitative data

Finally, if you wish to export quantitative data, you will find this option using the quantify tool (F7) followed by report spec. You will need to highlight every VAMAS block you wish to quantify, so if you have peak fit multiple elements for the same sample make sure that every block is selected or the resultant atomic % values will not be accurate. In the case of multiple orbitals of the same element, only select one for quantification. There are options for exporting quantitative data based on all region integration (only integrates regions), all component integration (only integrates components) or a mixture of regions and components (integrates components, if none are present for selected element/block – integrates region).