For more information on binding energy shifts – see our article titled ‘What influences Binding Energies?‘

For more information on Auger processes – see our article titled ‘The Auger Process and Auger Peaks.‘

To discover an advanced type of Auger process – see our article tiled ‘Coster-Kronig‘

Questions

1. In which order would you expect the following Te 3d orbitals (low to high) to appear? Te metal, TeO₂, CdTe, TeO₃ and TeCl₄
2. Arrange the following compounds into order for expected binding energy (low to high)
   1. C 1s: Metal Carbide, Alcohols, Carboxylic Acids, Fluorocarbons (CF₃), Alkanes, Ethers, Metal Carbonate
   2. Si 2p: Organic Si, SiO₂, Si₃N₄, Si, Aluminosilicate
   3. S 2p: Sulfonic acid (R-SO₃H), Metal sulfate, Elemental sulfur (S₈), Thiol, Metal sulfide
3. If Ni 2p regions have a binding energy of ~856 eV, and F KLL auger peaks have a kinetic energy of ~630 eV; which excitation source is more suitable for analysis? Al or Mg? Hint: remember B.E. = hv – K.E. – WF (WF can be treated as 0 in this case). For information on the energies of various X-ray sources, look at our article titled ‘X-ray Sources‘
4. An unknown copper sample recorded a binding energy of 932.5 eV for the 2p region with an Al ka source. The modified auger parameter was calculated to be 1849.4 eV. What was the species of the copper and what was the binding energy of the Cu LMM auger? Reference data for copper may be found on the HarwellXPS Guru Element page for copper. For a reminder of how the modified auger parameter is calculated – see our page titled ‘Auger Parameter‘

Continue to Section 3

Further Reading