Samarium electrodeposited acetate and oxide thin films on stainless steel substrate characterized by XPS

Characterization of a samarium thin film deposited on a stainless steel substrate using electrodeposition was carried out with a Thermo Scientific K-Alpha X-ray photoelectron spectrometer. Two types of samarium electrodeposition samples were studied, one as-deposited and one heated to 700 °C in an air atmosphere. Survey scans include peaks coming from the stainless steel substrate, such as Fe and Cr. An x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) survey spectrum, Sm 3d, C 1s, and O 1s narrow scans are shown. It was determined, using XPS, that the heating process decomposed the deposited Sm acetate to Sm2O3.