We have experimentally evaluated attenuation lengths (AL) of photoelectrons traveling in compact and micro and mesoporous (∼ 45% voids) SiO ₂ thin films with high (8.2-13.2 keV) kinetic energies. The films were grown on polished Si(100) wafers. ALs were deduced from the intensity ratio of the Si 1s signal from the SiO ₂ film and Si substrate using the two-peaks overlayer method. We obtain ALs of 15-22 nm and 23-32 nm for the compact and porous SiO ₂ films for the range of kinetic energies considered. The observed AL values follow a power law dependence on the kinetic energy of the electrons where the exponent takes the values 0.81 ± 0.13 and 0.72 ± 0.12 for compact and porous materials, respectively.