Join us on Thursday, November 28th for a webinar exploring the deepest SIMS depth profile ever registered.
What is the relation between the depth resolution and the measurement range in the secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)? In theory, there is none but… think about it! What is the depth of a crater after SIMS profiling with a depth resolution of about 1 nm? Is it in the micrometer range? Certainly not! Most probably tens or maybe hundreds of nanometers. Have you seen 20-micrometer-deep profiles? Of course! But what is the resolution in such cases? Tens of nanometers… It does not matter if we consider shallow or extremely deep profiles - the difference between the maximal measurement range and the depth resolution, henceforth called the scale-to-resolution ratio, is about three orders of magnitude. Incidentally, this implicit limitation is valid for other techniques used to determine the elemental composition…
But let us stay with the SIMS technique and ask ourselves a question: do we actually need a larger scale-to-resolution ratio? The answer is yes! There are phenomena that are happening at the atomic/subnanometer level but can span much larger distances, in the micrometer range. For example oxidation of carbide materials or intermixing of the InAs/InAsSb superlattice. Others, like copper diffusion in silicon or hydrogen embrittlement of steel, may require resolution of tens of nanometers and hundreds of micrometers of range. In all cases, the required scale-to-resolution ratio exceeds four orders of magnitude.
During the webinar, you will learn how to break this implicit limitation. First, a series of challenges will be identified along with suitable solutions. These will include ion polishing to prevent the buildup of roughness at the crater bottom, automated primary beam adjustment to minimize intensity fluctuations, co-sputtering to avoid the shadowing effect, and in situ cesium layer deposition to prevent hydrogen desorption.
A wide range of examples will be shown, for some of them scale-to-resolution ratio reaches five orders of magnitude difference. Eventually an interesting question will be answered: what is the deepest SIMS depth profile ever registered?
Register now and choose the session that fits your timezone:
REGISTER - 10AM CET Paris
REGISTER - 6PM CET Paris
About the Speaker
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Paweł Piotr Michałowski is a leader of Characterization of Materials and Devices Research Group at Łukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics with 20 years’ experience in Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry.
Currently he’s using CAMECA IMS SC Ultra tool with a depth resolution below 1nm. He specializes in analysis of ultra-thin and 2D materials and measurements of full device structures. |