Photoelectron spectroscopy from randomly corrugated surfaces

The influence of random surface roughness on photoelectron intensities has been investigated by angular-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and advanced calculations. Randomly corrugated silicon surfaces covered by a native silicon oxide, characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), were considered in calculations including the shadowing of photoelectrons and the differences between microscopic and macroscopic electron emission geometry. It is shown that the photoelectron intensity is mainly influenced by the spread of a local area distribution of slopes. The error induced by the random surface corrugation can be, however, acceptably low for the spread lesser than 35°.