A “Thickness Series”: Weak Signal Extraction of ELNES in EELS Spectra From Surfaces

Abstract We report a new simple but effective method to extract the weak surface signals from a “thickness series” of recorded electron energy-loss spectra. Using precise thickness measurements and energy-loss near-edge structures measured at increasing thicknesses, we are able to extract the surface and bulk components in the series. The electronic structure and bonding information from SrTiO₃ (001) reconstructed surfaces have been successfully obtained by applying this approach. This approach can be applied to study many other cases including absorbed monolayers and beam-sensitive interfaces.