Experimental values for segregation energies or surface energies are difficult to obtain. Surface (segregation) energies of metals can be related to peak shifts caused by the presence of a surface in an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) experiment. For industrially important 3-d metals this proved to be difficult because of the complicated background and large intrinsic peak widths. In this experimental study of single crystalline copper a new approach to XPS-profile fitting is applied, which allows discerning the contributions of surface and bulk to the spectra. Special emphasis was made on intrinsic XPS-background description. It was demonstrated that the intrinsic background is strongly affected by the surface, its type and quality. Proper account for these factors in fitting routines allowed us to separate the surface contribution to the total XPS-intensity and to report the first successful extraction of surface core-level shifts for copper (100) and (111) surfaces. The experimental results were compared to the surface energy estimations obtained by the semi-empirical Miedema macroscopic atom model. The experimental results were found in a good agreement with the trends predicted by this model.

• Legal notice:
  

  Copyright (c) Pielaszek Research, all rights reserved.
  The above materials, including auxiliary resources, are subject to Publisher's copyright and the Author(s) intellectual rights. Without limiting Author(s) rights under respective Copyright Transfer Agreement, no part of the above documents may be reproduced without the express written permission of Pielaszek Research, the Publisher. Express permission from the Author(s) is required to use the above materials for academic purposes, such as lectures or scientific presentations.
  In every case, proper references including Author(s) name(s) and URL of this webpage: https://science24.com/paper/1849 must be provided.