Surface analytical techniques

This review briefly describes some of the techniques available for analysing surfaces and illustrates their usefulness with a few examples. In particular, Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), sputter neutral mass spectroscopy (SNMS) and laser Raman spectroscopy are all described. In analysing a surface, AES and XPS would normally be considered first, with AES being applied where high spatial resolution is required and XPS where chemical state information is needed. SIMS and SNMS can be performed together and can detect smaller surface concentrations. Laser Raman spectroscopy is useful for determining molecular bonding. Techniques which give topographic information, such as scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), have not been considered.