Recent Japanese activities to construct measurement/characterization platform were introduced based on the output of the special committee of JSPS and of the NEDO project. The concept and trial of common data format for combined analysis were also introduced.

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Challenges associated with reproducibility and replication are impacting many areas of science. The reproducible preparation and delivery of nanoparticles is challenging and XPS can help address this problem. However, as the importance and use of XPS grown, there are increasing numbers of publications that include the inappropriate or incorrect use of XPS. Such papers add to reliability and reproducibility issues in the literature, sometimes leading to replication of errors and incorrect analyses. Some of the types of problems with “bad” XPS in publications are identified and the development of a series of guides and tutorials to help address the problem is described.

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Medium energy ion scattering (MEIS) has been used for quantitative depth profiling of ultrathin films with single atomic layer resolution. To assure the consistency of the MEIS analysis, an international round-robin test with nominally 1, 3, 5, and 7 nm thick HfO₂ films was conducted among 12 institutions. The standard deviations were 5.3% for the composition, 15.3% for the thickness, and 13.3% for the Hf content by using stopping and range of ions in matter (SRIM) 95, and they were improved to 7.3%, 4.5%, and 7.0% by using refitted electronic stopping powers based on the experimental data. This study suggests that correct electronic stopping powers are critical for quantitative MEIS analysis.

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In the mutual calibration for determination of ultrathin oxide film thickness, the thickness measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been known to be representative offset traceable. The offset traceability of XPS has been proved in the Consultative Committee for Amount of Substance (CCQM) pilot study P-190. For the analysis of nm HfO₂ film thickness by XPS, a general equation is used involving the relative peak intensity (R_o) of pure HfO₂ film and the substrate. The difference in the surface polarity of HfO₂ film and substrate induces different amount of surface carbon contamination, which leads to the error in R_o value. In the plot of XPS and reference thickness of HfO₂ films, the correction for the carbon contamination results in the offset value of -0.014 nm, while a larger offset value of -0.219 nm was measured without the carbon correction. Furthermore, different from the thickness measurement of SiO₂ film, the reference geometry configuration is not important factor for the thickness measurement of ultrathin amorphous HfO₂ films.

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Spatial resolution is one of the main specifications of confocal microscope. However, the definition and the measurement procedures largely vary depending on the manufacturer of the confocal Raman and confocal fluorescence microscope, therefore the general assessment of the spatial resolution has been limited. We try to provide standardized protocols that describe the measurement of the spatial resolution of analytical confocal microscopes by using small object method.

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Different approaches to quantify shell thicknesses are presented and compared. These comprise: (1) The infinitesimal columns model (IC), (2) Shard’s empirical formula (TNP-model) and (3) SESSA (Simulation of Electron Spectra for Surface Analysis) simulations with and (4) without elastic scattering. Experimental data on of a round robin experiment of PMMA@PTFE CSNPs were analysed with the aforementioned approaches and show a good mutual consistency and agree with the nominal shell thickness. However, use of the F1s signal leads to significant deviations. Transmission Electron Microscopy measurements revealed that the core-shell structure is non-ideal, i.e. the particles are aspherical and the cores are acentric within the particles. SESSA simulations were employed to estimate the effect of various types of deviations of ideal NPs on the outcome of shell thickness determination. The usefulness and importance of different kind of electron beam techniques for CSNP analysis and in particular shell thickness determination is discussed.

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Advanced theoretical models of photoelectron and Auger electron transport are typically implemented in Monte Carlo algorithms simulating multiple interactions of signal electrons in a solid. However, much effort has been devoted to develop analytical theoretical models describing electron transport with comparable accuracy. In this review, a critical analysis of these theories is presented. The second issue addressed here is the role of elastic scattering events in quantification of HAXPES analyses performed with the use of polarized radiation.

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We have calculated inelastic mean free paths (IMFPs) for 45 compounds for electron energies over the 50 eV to 200 keV range with the full Penn algorithm from the energy-loss functions of the compounds. Our calculated IMFPs could be fitted to a modified form of the relativistic Bethe equation for inelastic scattering in matter for energies from 50 eV to 200 keV. The average root-mean-square deviation in these fits was 0.60 %. The IMFPs were also compared with a relativistic version of our predictive Tanuma-Powell-Penn (TPP-2M) equation.

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We present calculations of low-energy electron inelastic mean free paths (IMFPs) within the dielectric formalism, using the energy-loss function (ELF) from ab initio calculations. The ELF is obtained from the time-dependent density functional theory in the adiabatic local density approximation (ALDA). We give an example of the ALDA-ELF and ALDA-IMFP for Fe. The obtained results agree well with other theoretical and experimental data.

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White-beam technique (using energy dispersive full spectrum as a probe) such as white-beam X-ray and white-beam neutron are useful for fast and comprehensive visualization of crystal defect and distortions. They are, however, rather difficult to analyze in any qualitative way, and even a qualitative interpretation often requires considerable experience and time. Here, we develop a white-beam electron technique to characterize nanomaterials without the influence of underlying substrate signals. In this new method, we have extended such “white-beam” concept to electron beam techniques, and employ such white-beam electrons (white electrons) to extract quantitative information of target nanomaterial with extremely high efficiency. Such attempt is a novel application and extension of the conventional white-beam technique, and possibly lead to further utilization of electron beam technique.

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I would like to talk our recent progress in the field of printed organic and perovskite field-effect transistors. I will mainly address how to improve field effect mobility and other parameters by optimizing semiconductor films and contact and controlling charge carrier density of active layer.

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Energy-tunable synchrotron radiation is essential for angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, which is a tool imaging the electronic structure in momentum space. Recently, the 10D HRPES-I beamline of the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory has been considerably upgraded, including the optimization of energy and momentum resolutions, two- dimensional mapping, etc. Here, we provide peculiar electronic structures of 2D layered materials taken at the beamline.

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Many applications of x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis have been reported in various fields, such as in the environmental, archeological, biological, and forensic sciences as well as in industry. Elemental analysis near surface region is performed by XRF. Advanced x-ray focusing optics such as polycapillary optics enables a micro x-ray beam with a laboratory x-ray source, leading to micro-XRF analysis and scanning-mode XRF imaging. A confocal micro-XRF technique has been applied for the visualization of elemental distributions inside the samples. In parallel, the authors have studied a wavelength dispersive XRF (WDXRF) imaging spectrometer for a fast elemental imaging. A full-field energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (FF-EDXRF) imaging spectrometer using single photon counting analysis with x-ray camera was also studied. We evaluated and discussed the performance of laboratory-made these scanning- and FF- imaging spectrometers concerning energy resolution, spatial resolution, quantitative performance and elemental imaging. At the end, compressed sensing which is one of general information processing technique was applied for high-resolution XRF images.

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Elemental analyses for detecting lowly concentrated elements at small volume such as interfaces and surface are very difficult due to the limitations of detection and analytical spot size. Through the analysis by atom probe tomography, we were able to confirm the distribution and concentration of the trace elements diffused into the passive layer of stainless steel and the thin film on SiC complementarily with x-ray photoelectron spectrometer, secondary ion mass spectrometer, and transmission electron microscopy.

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When a fresh tissue slice is placed on a graphene layer substrate and irradiated with a 532 nm continuous wave laser, the transmission mode desorption of biomolecules is found to be greatly enhanced enough to facilitate the mass spectrometry analysis. The subsequent ionization process with nonthermal atmospheric helium plasma jets enables production of sufficient amounts of molecular ions from a fresh hippocampal tissue, such as fragments of glycerolipid and sphingolipid, adenine, and cholesterol. Micrometer spatial resolution mass spectrometry imaging of the hippocampal tissue, which enables to clearly identify the spatial distributions of small molecules, is also achieved using 532 nm continuous wave laser and a single-layer graphene as an energy transporter.

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Desorption/Ionization Induced by Neutral SO₂ Clusters (DINeC) is employed as a very soft and efficient desorption/ionization source for mass spectrometry of molecules and their reactions on surfaces. The matrix-free desorption method is based on cluster-surface impact of SO₂ clusters at low cluster energy. As a result, fragmentation- free spectra from surfaces composed of or covered with complex molecules such as peptides and proteins are observed. Molecules at a surface coverage as low as 0.1 monolayers were detected; surface reactions such as H/D exchange or thermal decomposition were observed in real-time and the kinetics of the reactions could be deduced.

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Recent advances in practical applications and software for non-destructive characterization of nano-structures by analysis of the inelastic background in photoelectron spectroscopy are discussed.

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We developed and implemented a fully automated method to perform X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectral analysis based on the active Shirley method and information criteria. Our method searched many initial fitting models by changing the degree of smoothing, and obtained many fitting models after peak parameter optimization. The goodness of those models was evaluated using the Bayesian information criterion (BIC). As a result of applying this algorithm to measured XPS spectra, we found that using the BIC, a simple model with reasonably good agreement and a small number of peaks was selected. The model selected by the BIC was close to the results of peak fitting performed by XPS analysis experts.

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We present high precision determination of electron energy loss functions and thereby the optical constants, n and k, of solids from the measured, high energy resolution reflection electron energy-loss spectroscopy (REELS) spectra, covering the spectral energy range from visible to vacuum ultraviolet. The calculations are based on our recently developed reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) method. The RMC method combines a Monte Carlo modelling of electron transportation for REELS spectrum simulation, including both the elastic and inelastic collisions, with a Markov chain Monte Carlo calculation of parameterized energy loss function, Im [-1/ε(ω )]. We found that our calculated optical data of elements fulfill the sum rules with very high accuracy; therefore, the use of this calculated optical data in material science and surface analysis is highly recommended for further applications.

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In this review, we introduce the framework of Bayesian estimation in spectral deconvolution. In Bayesian estimation, we can trace the causal relationships by Bayes’ theorem to extract the underlying structure behind the spectral data. By applying Bayesian estimation to spectral deconvolution, we can estimate the number of peaks in the spectral data based on the framework of model selection. Furthermore, by using an algorithm called exchange Monte Carlo method, it is possible to solve the problem that is trapped in the local optimum solution.

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Image data fusion of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) data was investigated. The fused data were analyzed with multivariate analysis, deep learning, and sparse modeling to study what types of information could be extracted from data analysis. Image fusion with a method having higher spatial resolution provides not only higher resolution images but also more detailed chemical information. Microscope images could be useful guides to classify the samples and extract region of interest even if it is unknown. Model samples having micro meter patterns were analyzed by TOF-SIMS and SEM or optical microscopy. The same sample areas were trimmed from image data obtained with different methods and then fused by adding the other one’s intensity at each pixel to TOF-SIMS peak intensities. The patterns in the sample observed with SEM are helpful to extract important secondary ion information with reduced influence of noises. LASSO (least absolute shrinkage and selection operator) and Autoencoder, one of the deep learning techniques, extracted main information of the model samples as well as principal component analysis (PCA).

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A material search method without numerical data but with scientific principles has been proposed. It utilizes scientific principles in a form of connections of various materials properties. The connections of properties are made into network- type knowledge database, and a system to search these connections has been developed.

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Surface analysis technologies are very important and had been widely used in semiconductor material and device analysis. In this presentation, several important studies of III-V semiconductor materials and devices using different surface analyses, including scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM+EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), especially secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), will be introduced. For example, the physical origin of the droop effect; different failure mechanism; etching mechanism of lateral porous GaN, and how to distinguish the dopant occupation in the semiconductor lattice, etc.

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Near-surface structures of polar InN films were investigated by laboratory-based hard x-ray photoelectron diffraction (HXPD) with chemical-state-discrimination. HXPD patterns from In 3d_5/2 and N 1s core levels of the In-polar and N-polar InN films were different from each other and compared with the simulation results using a multiple-scattering cluster model. It was found that the near-surface structure of the In-polar InN film was close to the ideal wurtzite structure. On the other hand, on the N-polar InN film, defects-rich surface was formed. In addition, the existence of the In-polar domains was observed in the HXPD patterns.

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In this work, we present a novel approach for preparing atom probe tomography (APT) specimens from Pd electrocatalyst nanoparticles of less than 10 nm in size. This method is based on electrophoresis of nanoparticles on a substrate followed by electroplating of a metallic layer. Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) we could observe that particle shape and size were well preserved after these two process steps. We could routinely prepare APT specimens from the deposited nanoparticle/metal films using focused-ion- beam milling (FIB). Using APT we were not only able to map the elemental distribution within the nanoparticles but also the distribution of surfactants i. e. stabilizing and shape-controlling agents, used in the synthesis of the nanoparticles.

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The reduction process of the Fe₂O₃ (α-hematite) by Si was investigated with in-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Hematite and other iron oxides are main component of iron ore and Si is main gangue elements of iron ore. Si reduced hematite and Fe precipitated around 700°C. The electrons due to TEM(=200keV) was not necessary condition of Fe precipitation and grew until run out of Si. The residual Si reacted with precipitated Fe after a certain period of time of electron irradiation. The reaction completed very short time less than one frame of video. One of the reacted material was identified as α-FeSi₂. These results indicated that the possibility of new ironmaking without CO₂ emission and silicide formation.

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Surface analysis has been applied to obtain electronic properties for ultrathin high-k dielectric gate oxide thin films, metal gate stack in CMOS, and transparent conductive oxide thin film transistors (TFTs) incorporating an oxide active channel layer. The band alignment in HfZr silicate gate dielectric thin films showed that the band gap, the valence band offset and the conduction band offset increased as the SiO₂ content increased, which yielded a substantially reduced gate leakage current density. TheTiN/(LaO or ZrO)/SiO₂ metal gate stack structures in CMOS demonstrated that a flat band voltage (VFB) shift could be controlled in TiN/(LaO or ZrO)/SiO₂ gate stack structures. The electrical characteristics of GIZO TFTs mainly depend on the contents of indium (In) and gallium (Ga). The band gap energies of the GIZO thin films increased with the increase in their Gallium (Ga)/Indium (In) ratios. The barrier height of GIZO/Mo also increased by increasing in the Ga/In ratio, and then the threshold voltages positively shift. We also applied AES and REELS analyses to confirm the origin of intrinsic photoluminescence emission from subdomain graphene quantum dots

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We have been advocating so-called “Fountain Detector (FD)” for low energy secondary electron (SE) detection in scanning electron microscope (SEM). FDs are simple but easily expanded not only energy filtered but also angle filtered SE image detection. In this presentation, we review our results of energy filtered images of p-n junction of SiC and Si₃N₄ nanostructures. Then, we show the recent design of plain angle / directional filter for standard fountain detector and its performance.

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In a Scanning Field-Emission Microscope (SFEM) [1-3] originating from the topografiner technology [4], the tip-surface distance is few nanometers to few tens of nanometers and the electrons impinging on the target are field emitted from the tip. Accordingly, SFEM is not only capable to map the surface micro-topography - as done in conventional Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy – but electrons can escape the tip-surface junction and their intensity detected as a function of the surface position (imaging mode). The SFEM operates at very low primary energies (≤100eV) [5], so that the fundamental mechanisms relevant for the generation and emission of Low-Energy Secondary Electrons are poorly understood. Energy analysis of these electrons would provide useful information, essential e.g. for understanding the origin of contrast in imaging. However, such an energy analysis is made technically difficult by the presence of extremely strong ambient electric fields at the site of origin of the electrons. To overcome this limitation, we have designed and implemented a prototype miniature energy analyser, employing a Bessel Box (BB) [6] technology. The compact design of such a BB, mountable in direct proximity of the tip-surface region, could provide a decisive help toward refining the energy analysis of these Low-Energy Secondary Electrons and toward shedding light on the tangled phenomenon of secondary electron emission. Energy enhanced electron detection in SFEM could lead not only to a novel miniaturized spectro-microscopy device but also provide information about fundamental mechanisms of low energy electron scattering and secondary electron production

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Mutual calibration has been known to be a traceable method to determine the absolute thickness of nm oxide films Recently, the thicknesses of a serious of ultra-thin HfO₂ films were compared in a CCQM pilot study P-190 by 11 NMIs using various thickness measurement methods. The reference thicknesses of the films were precisely determined by mutual calibration by the average thickness of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and x-ray reflectometry (XRR) data. The film thicknesses were also measured by medium energy ion scattering spectroscopy (MEIS). The film thicknesses measured by MEIS were linearly proportional to the reference thicknesses and the thickness difference was about 2%.

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The confocal Raman microscope is a very useful tool that spatially visualizes the Raman activity of a sample with diffraction-limited high spatial resolution. Spatial resolution is a key specification of the performance of a manufactured Raman microscope but is often characterized differently. Here, test specimens made using dispersed carbon nanotubes and suspended graphene were prepared and measured to provide standardized estimation of the lateral and axial spatial resolution of the Raman microscope. General information of the standard specimen for lateral or axial resolution and case studies of actual measurements are also provided.

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An overview of the lab-based HAXPES is provided, along with progress in making this technique quantitative. This is necessary to enable it to be used to its full potential. The use of HAXPES and inelastic background analysis demonstrates excellent prospects for elemental depth-profiling of ~100 nm thick multilayered films.

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An ambient pressure photoelectron spectroscopy measurement that uses with hard X-rays (AP-HAXPES) were conducted at the BL36XU of SPring-8. The AP-HAXPES system with a commercial differential pumping-type spectrometer (R4000 HiPP-2, Scienta Omicron Inc.) was installed in the beamline with the excitation light of 7.94 keV focused to a beam size of 20 μm × 20 μm on the sample position. In this report, we replaced the front cone with our home-made one with an aperture diameter of 30 µm to increase the pressure limit in the AP-HAXPES measurement, although the standard aperture size in the spectrometer is a diameter of 300 μm. In addition, we have adopted the working distance of 60 μm in order not to perturb the gas environment at the sample surface. Using the windowless electron spectrometer system, we have succeeded in measuring X-ray photoelectron spectra under real ambient atmosphere (10⁵ Pa).

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With the combination of ambient pressure XPS and STM, a formation of Pt-NiO_1-x nanoclusters on Pt₃Ni(111) is observed. Initially, under UHV condition, a Pt-skin surface is formed. Then, as oxygen gas is introduced, NiO_1-x clusters forms on surface as Ni atoms segregate to the surface. When CO and oxygen gases are introduced at room temperature, the Pt-NiO_1-x nanoclusters, the product of NiO_1-x clusters and Pt skin, is observed with the presence of CO oxidation reaction. In comparison of density functional theory calculations, it is identified that interfacial Pt-NiO_1-x nanostructures is responsible for a highly efficient step in the CO oxidation reaction.

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Near ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) is an advanced version of traditional XPS. NAP- XPS works at relatively high pressures, which allows many types of samples to be analyzed. Here we show NAP-XPS analyses of various non-traditional materials and describe advantages and unique features of the technique.

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A thorough understanding of nanoparticle surfaces is essential to many potential applications. In particular, measurement of coatings or overlayers on nanoparticles is of great importance, due to the ubiquity of core-shell or coated nanoparticle systems. Due to their surface-sensitivity, electron spectroscopies are ideally suited to the characterisation of nanostructures. While several methods and analyses for characterisation of such nanoparticles using electron spectroscopies have been reported, there is a growing need for these to be addressed by standardization bodies. Here we present the development of an ISO technical report on the topic of measurement of nanoparticle coatings using electron spectroscopies, and relevant considerations.

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Transparent conductive Al-doped ZnO thin films have been investigated by hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy using a laboratory-based XPS system equipped with a Cr Kα X-ray source. The dependences of the carrier concentration were studied. The core and valence band spectra showed tail-like satellite structures at high binding energy side strongly depends on the carrier concentration. The in-gap states near the Fermi level showed a broad feature extended below the conduction band minimum estimated by the photoluminescence.

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We compiled results from the implementation of the practical methods for backgrounds subtraction and the modelling of line-shape in photoemission spectra of catalysis and carbon nanostructures. The methods include the Shirley–Vegh– Salvi–Castle (SVSC) and slope for background subtraction, and the double Lorentzian line-shape for case when asymmetry was found in the spectra. To allow optimization of background and line-shape during the fitting, the active- approach was used. The advantages of the use of these practical methods under the active-approach were evidenced from the photoemission areas, allowing the assessment of the sulfidation extent A_Mo3d-MoS2/A_{Mo3d_Total} in the case of catalysis and from the graphitization index A_sp³ /A_sp², for carbon nanostructures.

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The chemical state quantification of elements, especially transition metals and their compounds from X-ray Auger electron spectrum, is generally difficult due to the complexity of spectra resulting from peak asymmetries and overlapped binding energies. Moreover, background shape which contains information on surface contamination and roughness affects comparability of spectral fitting data on the element of interest. To promote practical use of spectral fitting for the chemical state quantification, the top-hat filtering (THF) was applied to Cu LMM Auger electron spectra. It was found that the THF suppressed the difference of background shapes derived from surface contamination and that oxidation states of Cu was quantified plausibly by least square fitting of standard spectra. Thus, it is suggested that the combination of the THF and least square fitting is a practical method for the chemical state quantification of X-ray Auger electron spectrum.

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Recently, next-generation two-dimensional (2D) materials to replace graphene inspired people to study other types of elements. Among them, black phosphorus (BP) have attracted great interests for their wide range of optical bandgap from near IR to visible wavelength and remarkable high hole mobility. However, one of critical challenges for the applications of BP to devices is its instability. Herein, we introduce a very simple method to fabricate a thin and stable BP. Thermal annealing in air above 200 °C creates a stable BP oxide layer on top of the BP surface. In the meantime, thermal oxidation reduces the thickness of the BP by etching the top BP layer. In addition, we find that the protective layer is composed of P₂O₅ by using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). We suggest that the thermal annealing provides an effective and simple strategy to fabricate high-quality BP-based electronic devices.

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Super-resolution optical microscopy using fluorescent labels has been transformational in allowing the machinery of life, e.g. proteins, to be seen at the nanoscale. There is a great desire in the life-sciences to achieve this level of insight for metabolites. This will allow unprecedented ability to understand rewiring of metabolic networks involved in disease, understanding of the uptake of drugs in cells and construct mechanistic understanding in fundamental biology. However, this is a monumental challenge since fluorescent labelling strategies cannot be used because of the dynamic processes in the creation of metabolites and because the fluorescent labels themselves radically alter the chemistry of the metabolite.

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In our laboratory, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) technique has been used for the analysis of surface contaminants, surface adsorbates, and the penetration of agents, and for the investigation of surface degradation and damage of both materials and biological samples. In this paper, the applications of SIMS for hair and skin researches are explained. The outermost surface of human hair is covered with a thin layer of fatty acids, which plays an important role in creating the feeling of smoothness, and surface hydrophobicity. In this study, changes in fatty acids were characterized using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (TOF-SIMS) in order to investigate hair damage. In the skin research, the penetration of cosmetic ingredient was examined. The surface of skin is the stratum corneum, which works as a barrier against both external stimuli and transepidermal water loss. It was found that treatment with synthetic pseudo-ceramide (sphingolipid E; SLE) is effective for improving the barrier function. TOF-SIMS and Nano-SIMS studies revealed that the SLE penetrated into the stratum corneum via an inter-cellular pathway, and that the barrier function was improved by replenishing intercellular lipids at damaged sites on the stratum corneum.

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TOF-SIMS depth profiling is a common way to evaluate the OLED devices. However, the depth profiles of OLEDs are still complicated due to the mass interference from other organic compounds. In this study, in order to extract the accurate depth distributions from conventional depth profiles, MS/MS depth profiling method has been applied. This new method enables us to determine the specific molecular depth distributions of individual organic compounds, and understand the degradation mechanism.

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The metallic Fe 2p photoemission spectrum poses strong theoretical and analytical challenges. Its multiplet structure cannot be calculated with existing codes. Peak-fitting has been extremely elusive, with no reports in the literature showing possible peak components. Based on the comparison of the spectra for various iron film thickness, a primary function and a multiplet structure for the metallic Fe 2p spectrum is proposed. The fitting method involved state-of-the- art tools such as simultaneous-fitting and the active background approach. A very interesting finding is that the relative strength of its multiplet components is modulated with film thickness.

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Full characterization of complex materials with ultra-thin film structures or nanostructures can rarely be accomplished with a single analysis technique. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) has often been complemented with Ultra-violet Photoelectron Spectroscopy (UPS), ion scattering data or electron microscopy. This presentation will show how the addition of in-situ Raman spectroscopy to an XPS surface analysis system can help to characterize 2D nano-materials such as graphene, by adding chemical and bulk information to surface information all obtained from the same analysis position on the sample.

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Here we provide an overview of a multi-technique investigation of layered thin film and ultra-thin film coatings. Surface sensitive analytical techniques are chosen for their different sampling depths and include a combination of conventional Al Kα and higher photon energy Ag Lα excited XPS, angle resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ARXPS) with maximum entropy method (MEM) reconstruction of concentration depth profiles and argon cluster depth profiling.

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The fine structures of secondary electron are considered using the electron spectra measured using the special CMA. The differential logarithmic spectrum and EELS revealed that the fine structure is closely related the electronic structure such as the plasmon and unoccupied state.

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Instead of conventional paper-based laboratory notebook, electronic recording system of experimental conditions is adopted in actual measurements. “Electronic” leads to easiness of retrospective search on computer and sharing of information with collaborators via communications network. The more advantage is that an electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) data can be linked with characterization measurement data. In order to apply an ELN in a research and development sector, various kinds of notebook templates are required with a flexibility and a data recording device should be handy and user-friendly. In our developing ELN system, everyone can make an original ELN template according to the preference and can input data onto the template working on a web software of a tablet or PC. ELN data with essential metadata are stored in an ELN server and they are utilized as digital data file.

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In this work, we evaluate the viability of an improved stage-scan strain mapping method based on nanosized selected area electron diffraction. We demonstrate high accuracy and precision comparable with the other transmission electron microscopy methods for strain mapping. High characteristics of the stage-scan strain mapping method were achieved owning to idea of scanning the sample and acquisition of diffraction patterns under the fixed electron beam, and further post-processing of the raw data with Gaussian fitting for precise determination of the diffraction spot positions.

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