| Abstract: | The dependence of x‐ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) on the chemical environment implies a corresponding environmental dependence of photoionization cross‐sections. The practical consequences of the XAFS for quantitative core‐level photoelectron spectroscopy have been studied for a number of materials with the help of simulations based on the ab initio FEFF code. The XAFS effects are predicted to be significant only for photoelectron kinetic energies below 250–300 eV. These effects take the form of systematic sensitivity factor variations between different chemical structural environments (e.g. compound materials quantified with reference to elemental standards). Apart from a few exceptions (e.g. the 2p core levels of Zn, Ga, Ge and As in metallic environments), the XAFS should introduce no significant errors when conventional Mg Kα or Al Kα sources are used for excitation. For core‐level spectra excited with synchrotron radiation or He II radiation sources, the quantification errors can readily approach or exceed 10% at room temperature (and are expected to increase at lower temperatures). Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
