Vocabulary
The surface chemical analysis vocabulary (surface analysis terminology) provides surface analysis definitions for some 800 terms in ISO 18115:2001, and its Amendments. This covers terms for surface analysis spectroscopies such as Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and many similar methods as well as scanned probe microscopies (SPM) such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM), scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and many similar methods.
Surface chemical analysis involves interactions between people with different backgrounds and from different fields. Those conducting surface chemical analysis may be materials scientists, chemists or physicists and may have a background that is primarily experimental or primarily theoretical. Furthermore, those making use of the surface chemical data extend beyond this group into other disciplines. The wide range of disciplines and the individualities of national usages have led to different meanings being attributed to particular terms and, again, different terms being used to describe the same concept. This vocabulary is designed to clarify concepts for analysts, avoid misunderstandings arising from different usages and to facilitate the exchange of information.
A wide range of surface chemical analysis terms have been defined within the framework of ISO and may be found in the following documents:
- ISO18115:2001 – Surface chemical analysis – Vocabulary
- ISO18115:2001Amd1 – Surface chemical analysis – Vocabulary
- ISO18115:2001Amd2 – Surface chemical analysis – Vocabulary
For copyright reasons, we cannot provide the complete definitions on this website. However, a list of the terms defined can be found in the following searchable databases available for download:
- ISO18115 Vocabulary index (
MS Word 152 KB) - ISO18115 Vocabulary sorted index (
MS Excel 269 KB) - ISO18115 Vocabulary index (
PDF 152 KB)
To help users of scanned probes, we also provide a family tree of the SPM acronyms, and annotated figures of the design of complex probes and of the probe assembly ( PDF 340 KB)
Revision history of ISO 18115 - Surface chemical analysis - Vocabulary
The initial vocabulary document, ISO18115:2001, contains 350 terms for Surface Chemical Analysis. These cover AES, XPS, SIMS, sputtering and depth profiling and associated areas. An example of the format of the definitions is given for Auger parameter below:
5.31
Auger parameter
<XPS> kinetic energy of a narrow Auger electron peak in a spectrum minus the kinetic energy of the most intense photoelectron peak from the same element
c.f. initial state Auger parameter, modified Auger parameter
NOTE 1 The value of the Auger parameter depends on the energy of the X-rays which therefore needs to be specified.
NOTE 2 The Auger parameter is sometimes called the final state Auger parameter,
NOTE 3 The Auger parameter is useful for separating chemical states for samples in which charging causes uncertainty in the binding energy measurement or in which the binding energy shift is inadequate to identify the chemical state.
NOTE 4 The Auger parameter is useful for evaluating the relaxation energy of the ionised matrix atom associated with the generation of a core hole for those Auger transitions between core levels which have similar chemical shifts.
In the first amendment, ISO 18115:2001Amd 1, 5 abbreviations and 71 terms were added. Many of these terms covered concepts in glow discharge analysis. None of the previous terms were changed. In the second amendment, ISO 18115:2001Amd 2 (currently close to publication), a further 87 terms, many for secondary ion mass spectrometry, elastic peak electron spectroscopy and reflected electron energy loss spectroscopy, 76 acronyms for scanned probes, 33 definitions of scanned probe techniques, 6 terms for contact mechanics and 147 terms for concepts in scanned probe analysis are included. Additionally, term 5.24, attenuation length, in ISO 18115:2001 has an added sentence clarifying NOTE 2 and term 5.25, effective attenuation length, is revised to make it more general. To accommodate new terms, this standard has been revised into two new ISO documents; Parts 1 and 2, due for completion in 2009, where Part 1 contains entries relevant to the spectroscopies and Part 2 to the scanned probes.