A simple statistical model for quantitative analysis of plasmon structures in XPS and Auger spectra of free-electron-like materials

A method is presented for analysing the energy loss part (dominated by contributions from extrinsic, intrinsic and surface plasmon excitations) of electron spectra excited from free-electron-like solids by X-rays. It is an improved version of the model originally proposed by Steiner, Hochst and Hufner and it accounts for contributions of electrons suffering multiple energy losses of different origin. Applied for analysing a Ge 2s photoelectron spectrum excited from a thin Ge layer, the applicability of the method to separate contributions to the inelastic background of the spectra due to intrinsic, extrinsic and surface plasmons is demonstrated. The aim of this work to give a detailed description of the simple statistical model applied in ref. [M. Novak, S. Egri, L. Kover, I. Cserny, W. Drube, W.S.M. Werner, Surf. Sci. 601 (2007) 2344] for practical analysis of photoelectron spectra. The effects of the application of energy loss distributions (for single bulk and single surface excitations) derived by using different methods are also investigated.