PAES

Positron annihilation induced Auger electron spectroscopy (PAES) is an analysis technique for surface studies with high elemental selectivity and exceptional surface sensitivity.

In PAES, the emission of Auger electrons is initiated by positron-electron annihilation, which leads to several major advantages compared with conventional electron-induced AES. The main features are:

• Topmost layer sensitivity
• No secondary electron background at the Auger peaks
• Non-destructive technique

PAES is part of the surface spectrometer (SuSpect) which also enables sample preparation in UHV conditions, conventional AES and XPS. In the future, SuSpect will also enable structure analysis using positron diffraction.