Talk:Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy

A useful result from characterization of solids by UPS is the determination of the work function of the material. An example of this determination is given by Park, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett 68(19). 1996. Briefly, the full width of the photoelectron spectrum (from the highest kinetic energy/lowest binding energy point to the low kinetic energy cutoff) is measured and subtracted from the photon energy of the exciting radiation, and the difference is the work function. Often, the sample is electrically biased negative to separate the low energy cutoff from the spectrometer response.

Dlneiman (talk) 04:59, 25 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Interesting. How about putting this directly into the article? Perhaps as the second-last paragraph. Dirac66 (talk) 13:43, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

First sentence needs correction

 * The first line is wrong and very misleading. It reads "kinetic energy spectra of photoelectrons emitted by ultraviolet photons". The photoelectrons are not emitted by UV light, they are emitted by atoms. The UV light is used to excited the electrons. Jesse Williams (talk) 02:32, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Fixed, thank you. I wrote molecules rather than atoms, since much more work has been done on molecules than on free atoms. Dirac66 (talk) 02:47, 31 October 2011 (UTC)