Determination of atomic hydrogen in hydrocarbons by means of the reflected electron energy loss spectroscopy and the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Elastic peaks electron spectroscopy (EPES) is a perspective tool for measuring the hydrogen atomic density in hydrocarbons. It is known that hydrogen elastic peaks overlap inelastic energy loss spectra. This fact complicates the quantitative interpretation of EPES spectra. In this paper, a novel technique based on the joint use of EPES and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) is proposed. A key part of the method is the inelastic scattering background subtraction which is performed in two steps. At the first step, differential inelastic scattering cross-sections are retrieved from PES spectra, while at the second step, the retrieved cross-sections are used to remove the inelastic scattering signal from EPES spectra. Both REELS and PES spectra are described on the base of the invariant imbedding method forming a consistent framework for the surface state analysis. A good agreement is obtained between calculated spectra and experimental data. (paper)