New method for the determination of the correction function of a hemisperical electron analyser based on elastic electron images

•Determination of correction function of a hemispherical analyzer (HSA).•Visualization of analysis area using elastic backscattered electron images.•Dependence of analysis area and transmission function with the kinetic energy.•Efficiency of these functions for quantitative interpretations of XPS.•Description of the general methodology to use these functions. The correction function of a hemispherical analyzer (HSA) is determined for quantitative interpretations of electron spectroscopy. In this way, electron elastic images are performed using a scanning electron gun. This new method allowed the determination of the analysis area A(EK) of a HSA for the first time. An important result is the dependence of this analysis area on the electron kinetic energy EK. Indeed, results show that A(EK) varies as EK−1.2 regardless of the spectrometer configuration. This parameter is different from the so-called transmission function and must be taken into account for quantitative interpretation. Moreover, the transmission function T(EK) is also determined in this work and varies as a power function EKx where x is a fitting parameter which depends only on the width in the energy dispersive direction of the hemisphere entrance slit. These two apparatus functions are then validated thanks to XPS measurements by comparing results obtained on two different Ag surfaces. Then a general methodology to use these functions is given.