Editing X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (section)

==Surface sensitivity==
XPS detects only electrons that have actually escaped from the sample into the vacuum of the instrument. In order to escape from the sample, a photoelectron must travel through the sample. Photo-emitted electrons can undergo inelastic collisions, recombination, excitation of the sample, recapture or trapping in various excited states within the material, all of which can reduce the number of escaping photoelectrons. These effects appear as an exponential attenuation function as the depth increases, making the signals detected from analytes at the surface much stronger than the signals detected from analytes deeper below the sample surface. Thus, the signal measured by XPS is an exponentially surface-weighted signal, and this fact can be used to estimate analyte depths in layered materials.