A Study of Quantitative Chemical State Analysis on Cerium Surface by Using Auger Electron Spectroscopy and Factor Analysis

A reaction with oxygen during oxygen exposure to a cerium metal surface under ultra high vacuum condition and depth profiling on formed cerium oxide layer were investigated in terms of chemical state analysis by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and by factor analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) on Ce NON Auger spectra suggested that three physically meaningful components existed from the analyzed data in both cases. After the PCA, three spectra were extracted from the data, and these showed significant peak shape changes in each spectrum, which were corresponding to different chemical states. In addition, the profiles constructed by factor analysis showed the chemical state changes on the cerium metal surface during oxidation or chemical depth distributions in the oxide layer.