Experimental determination of the effective attenuation length of palladium 3d 5/2 photoelectrons in a magnetron sputtered Pd nanolayer

An electron effective attenuation length (EAL) of 1.68 nm for Al Kα excited Pd 3d 5/2 photoelectrons with a kinetic energy of 1.152 keV has been determined experimentally using a sputtered Pd film deposited on an ultra flat fused quartz substrate. The film thickness was reduced by Ar ion sputtering several times in order to obtain different Pd film thicknesses which are used to determine experimental EAL values. These results are compared to data generated by using a Simulation of Electron Spectra for Surface Analysis (SESSA) simulation using an inelastic mean free path (IMFP) calculated with the Tanuma–Powell–Penn (TPP)-2M formula and with ‘elastic scattering on and off’. Contributions to the uncertainty budget related to the experimental approach are discussed in detail. Proposals on how to further improve the approach are suggested. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.