X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS or ESCA) was not developed by Siegbahn and co-workers as a surface analytical technique, but rather as a general probe of electronic structure and chemical reactivity. The method is based on the phenomenon of photoionisation: The absorption of monochromatic radiation in the target material (free atoms, molecules, solids or liquids) causes electrons to be injected into the vacuum continuum. Pseudo-monochromatic laboratory light sources (e.g. AlKα) have mostly been used hitherto for this excitation; in recent years synchrotron radiation has become increasingly important. A kinetic energy analysis of the so-called photoelectrons gives rise to a spectrum which consists of a series of lines corresponding to each discrete core and valence level of the system. The measured binding energy, EB, given by EB = hv−EK, where EK is the kineticenergy relative to the vacuum level, may be equated with the orbital energy derived from a Hartree-Fock SCF calculation of the system under consideration (Koopmans theorem).
