Channeling effects in polycrystalline copper—a serious impediment to quantitative Auger analysis?

Abstract
Variations in absolute Auger intensity of as much as 40% are reported for the analysis of polycrystalline copper surfaces in a high resolution scanning Auger microprobe. The angular dependent Auger yield is correlated with channeling effects of the incident electron beam. A correction procedure based upon ratioing the Auger peak intensity to the elastically backscattered electron peak, combined with an angular averaging technique can reduce the crystallographically induced Auger yield variations by a factor of four.