Title: depth resolution
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - depth resolution
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.D01607
Status: current

Definition
The distance between the 84 and 16 per cent levels of the depth profile of an element in a perfect sandwich sample with an infinitesimally small overlap of the components. These limits correspond to the 2\(\sigma \)-value of the Gaussian distribution of the signal at the interface.

Related Terms
- depth profile: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/D01606
- interface: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/I03082

Source
- PAC, 1979, 51, 2243. 'General aspects of trace analytical methods—IV. Recommendations for nomenclature, standard procedures and reporting of experimental data for surface analysis techniques' on page 2247 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac197951112243)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/D01607/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/D01607/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/D01607/xml

Citation: Citation: 'depth resolution' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.D01607
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Accessed: 2026-06-07T14:13:15+00:00