Auger electron spectroscopy process development

Electrochemical surface science has undergone rapid development in recent years due to the adaptation of ultrahigh-vacuum- (UHV-) based experimental techniques such as low-energy electron diftaction (LEED), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS). These techniques have allowed the establishment of a direct correlation between the composition and structure of the electrode surface and the mechanism of electrode processes. The adaptation of these techniques has buttressed a variety of classical electrochemical techniques that demand theoretical models in order to arrive at a semblance of mechanistic features at the atomic level. 

Of all the techniques that have been developed to analyze surfaces. Auger electron spectroscopy has had the most widespread application. In the field of materials science, it has joined such analytical methods as X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy as a staple of any well-equipped laboratory. It is used in chemistry and materials science to study the composition of solid surfaces and the chemical states of atoms and molecules on those surfaces. Chemists and physicists study the basic Auger transition to help learn about electronic processes in solids. Those interested in developing electronic equipment have been concerned with providing spectrometers with ever-decreasing incident beam diameters that will allow the chemical analysis of a surface on a microscopic scale. It is hoped that this article plus the... 

A variety of theoretical models have been developed in which relaxation is taken into account (transition state models, relaxed potential models, equivalent core models). A discussion of these models is far beyond the scope of this article. Here, we will only add some comments on methods by which it is possible to separate initial and final state effects with the use of experimentally available data. These methods are based on a combination of PE and Auger electron spectroscopy. We consider an Auger transition from an initial state with a single hole in the inner shell to a final state with two holes in another inner shell i. This Auger transition is combined with photoionization processes that correspond to the photoemission of an electron from orbital k and from orbital i. This yields... 

Surface and interface science are critical in efforts to understand fundamental behavior and to develop new materials, processes, and products for many advanced technologies. Surface and interface properties such as reactivity (or stabihty) and catalysis in different environments, thin-fUm growth (and stability), mechanical properties, electrical properties, magnetic properties, and optical properties often need to be measured as a function of one or more processing variables. In almost aU cases, it is also necessary to determine concurrently the chemical composition of the surface or interface of interest As indicated later in this section, the two most commonly used techniques for this purpose are Auger-electron spectroscopy (AES) and X-ray photoeiectron spectroscopy (XPS). This statement is also supported by the number of publications in which these techniques were utihzed [1]. 

There are several cascade codes developed for reproducing the cascade decays of exotic atoms (see, e.g., Borie and Leon 1980 Markushin 1999 Jensen and Markushin 2002). The cascade process is studied by detecting X-rays and Auger electrons from transitions in all exotic atoms and via laser spectroscopy in metastable antiprotonic helium (see O Sect. 28.6.3.2). It was experimentally observed that medium-heavy muonic atoms such as p Ar lose all atomic electrons via Auger effect by the time the muon reaches the ground state (Bacher et al. 1988). 

In recent development of the semiconductor industries, thermal oxide film thickness of less than 5 nm has been used in semiconductor devices such as metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures. Thickness of less than 5 nm is almost near the thickness of a native oxide film on the surface of silicon wafer. Therefore the characterization of ultra thin native oxide film is important in the semiconductor process technology. The secondary electron microscopy (SEM), the scanning Auger electron microscopy (SAM), the atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) might be the useful characterization method for the surface of the silicon wafers. 

---