Quick Overview #
Identification of peaks in your XPS data using KherveFitting is made simple by some of the many tools implemented in the software. Manual, and automatic options exist, and these can both be used to help you understand your spectra.
Automatic Peak ID #
To use automatic peak ID, use the 
icon in the top toolbar, which will bring up a new menu window. Hit run for a basic peak ID.
If your data has a little noise, you might find that this process identifies lots of elements – many of which you can be sure are not actually there!! To tell KherveFitting to be more selective, use the % modifier option to increase the % – which will require the signal-to-noise be higher before KherveFitting will identify a peak as a peak. Run the process again, and you should find it is more selective.
Tagging, Marking, and Deleting #
Elements can be ‘tagged’ to force them to be considered part of your dataset, by typing them into the element box, separated by a comma. KherveFitting will then force these elements into the process.
If at any point you want to undo anything from this process – just hit delete and close the window!
Survey Identification and Peak Markers #
To open Survey identification and labelling, use the
icon. From here you can select elements of interest, and bring up the expected peak energies and markers.
You can control the size of the peak markers using the ‘Line Intensity’ option.
Labelling Surveys #
Selecting the orbitals of interest using the right hand option box, you can select ‘Add Labels’ to mark your survey ready for export or presentation.
- Clear Selected = Clear Currently Highlighted Lines
- Clear All List = Empty Right Hand Side Option Box
- Clear Last Label = Remove Most Recently Added Spectrum Label
- Clear All Labels = Start From Scratch
Auto ID From Survey Identification #
Auto ID is also available from this menu, albeit with fewer options. You can use the undo function to remove anything added to grid this way.
NIST Library #
The
icon opens the NIST library. Here you will find access to the entire NIST database of recorded binding energies.
CAUTION – THESE BINDING ENERGIES SHOULD BE USED AS A GUIDE ONLY! SOURCE, CALIBRATION AND EXPERIMENTAL DATA ARE NOT AVAILABLE AND AS SUCH, COMPARISONS WITH YOUR DATA SHOULD NOT BE MADE WITHOUT PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR ENTIRE DATASET!
You can search this dataset by element, by orbital, and by entering chemical compositions or names into the search functions.
Properties #
The properties tab gives very useful, element specific, information – as well as XPS guides from Thermo Scientific, Surface Science Western (Mark Biesingers XPSFitting website), and HarwellXPS!
You can plot a profile of all of the binding energies in the database, to get an idea if your data sits at relatively high or low binding energy.
