Total reflection (TR) XPS has been applied to a mirror-polished iron sheet using incident X-ray with the energy range of 1800-3600 eV from synchrotron radiation. XPS spectra measured under the TR conditions show remarkably low background intensity and the relative background intensity becomes lower as the photon energy of incident X-ray increases. These results are explained qualitatively by means of shallow penetration depth of grazing incident X-rays and rather deep escape depth of high-energy photoelectrons. XPS spectra have been recorded under ordinary XPS geometry using X-rays with the same energy range. These spectra are compared with TRXPS, and background spectra are extracted and used for background subtraction for ordinary XPS spectra.
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