Abstract: Both the mechanism of the background generated and the derivation process of Tougaard’s method used for subtracting background in XPS are elucidated briefly,and the Tougaard′s simplest form used for writing the calculation program is presented.To inspect the suitable range to the Tougaard′s method,the most of samples in this research which have not been involved in the measurements by Tougaard are selected,such as PbCl2、TiO2、SnCl2、MoO3、NaCl、NaBr、KI、NaH2PO4、Na2SO4、and SiO2.Of course,in order to compare with the results measured by Tougaard,the pure Au、Ag、Cu and Ni are also selected and measured.The program of Tougaardlike written by ourselves to use the VC language are tried to be applied to subtracting backgrounds of some spectra from fourteen various kinds of sample including metal、transition element and nonmetal.All of results from eighteen typical sets of data are compared successively with those taken from both Shirley′s and straightline′s methods (Fig.3～5 and Table 2,3 respectively).The comparisions of deviation of three experimental methods from the theoretical calculations are also made (Fig.6).Finally,according to our experimental results,it is shown that the Tougaard′s method indeed could give out the more accurate peak area measurements in XPS,i.e.possessing the least deviations from the theoretical calculating value in the three methods used for both subtracting background and measuring the peak area not only suitable for both the noble metal and transition metal,but also for the samples of nonmetal and powder compound.

Key words: XPS, Straightline method, Shirley theory, Tougaard theory, Background subtraction