Evaluation of Three Peak Detection Algorithms for XPS Spectra

Abstract

In order to evaluate three peak detection algorithms, the influences of parameter values used were examined using digitized synthetic XPS spectra with different levels of noise. The three peak detection algorithms are the Threshold Curve of the Second Derivative (2nd DER method), the Directly Calculating Peak and Background Relations at a Candidate Peak (PB method), and the Rough Estimation of Spectrum Background (BGD method). The peak detection results clearly showed that particular combination of parameter values produce the best performance for each algorithm. The validity of those parameter values was assessed by comparing the results from the peak detection algorithms with those of visual detection. On the whole, the BGD method was found to be the most practical. The importance of choosing effective parameter values and the advantages and disadvantages of these three peak detection methods were summarized.