X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy - History

History

In 1887, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz discovered the photoelectric effect that was explained in 1905 by Albert Einstein (Nobel Prize in Physics 1921). Two years later, in 1907, P.D. Innes experimented with a Röntgen tube, Helmholtz coils, a magnetic field hemisphere (electron energy analyzer) and photographic plates to record broad bands of emitted electrons as a function of velocity, in effect recording the first XPS spectrum. Other researchers, Henry Moseley, Rawlinson and Robinson, independently performed various experiments trying to sort out the details in the broad bands. Wars halted research on XPS.

After WWII, Kai Siegbahn and his group in Uppsala (Sweden) developed several significant improvements in the equipment and in 1954 recorded the first high-energy-resolution XPS spectrum of cleaved sodium chloride (NaCl) revealing the potential of XPS. A few years later in 1967, Siegbahn published a comprehensive study on XPS bringing instant recognition of the utility of XPS, which he referred to as ESCA (Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis). In cooperation with Siegbahn, a small group of engineers (Mike Kelly, Charles Bryson, Lavier Faye, Robert Chaney) at Hewlett-Packard in the USA, produced the first commercial monochromatic XPS instrument in 1969. Siegbahn received the Nobel Prize in 1981 to acknowledge his extensive efforts to develop XPS into a useful analytical tool.

In parallel with Siegbahn's work, David Turner at Imperial College (and later at Oxford) in the UK developed ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) on molecular species using helium lamps.