Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan.
Analyst. 2011 Mar 7;136(5):941-6. doi: 10.1039/c0an00642d. Epub 2010 Dec 14.
Cluster ion sputtering has been proven to be an effective technique for depth profiling of organic materials. In particular, C(60)(+) ion beams are widely used to profile soft matter. The limitation of carbon deposition associated with C(60)(+) sputtering can be alleviated by concurrently using a low-energy Ar(+) beam. In this work, the role of this auxiliary atomic ion beam was examined by using an apparatus that could analyze the sputtered materials and the remaining target simultaneously using secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS), respectively. It was found that the auxiliary 0.2 kV Ar(+) stream was capable of slowly removing the carbon deposition and suppresses the carbon from implantation. As a result, a more steady sputtering condition was achieved more quickly with co-sputtering than by using C(60)(+) alone. Additionally, the Ar(+) beam was found to interfere with the C(60)(+) beam and may lower the overall sputtering rate and secondary ion intensity in some cases. Therefore, the current of this auxiliary ion beam needs to be carefully optimized for successful depth profiling.
团簇离子溅射已被证明是一种有效的有机材料深度剖析技术。特别是，C(60)(+)离子束被广泛用于软物质的剖析。通过同时使用低能 Ar(+)束，可以缓解与 C(60)(+)溅射相关的碳沉积限制。在这项工作中，通过使用能够分别使用二次离子质谱 (SIMS) 和 X 射线光电子能谱 (XPS) 同时分析溅射材料和剩余靶材的装置，研究了这种辅助原子离子束的作用。结果发现，辅助的 0.2 kV Ar(+)流能够缓慢去除碳沉积并抑制碳的植入。因此，与单独使用 C(60)(+)相比，共溅射能更快地达到更稳定的溅射条件。此外，还发现 Ar(+)束会干扰 C(60)(+)束，并且在某些情况下可能会降低整体溅射率和二次离子强度。因此，需要仔细优化辅助离子束的电流，以实现成功的深度剖析。
