Ion sputtering

Ions are also used to initiate secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) [ ], as described in section BI.25.3. In SIMS, the ions sputtered from the surface are measured with a mass spectrometer. SIMS provides an accurate measure of the surface composition with extremely good sensitivity. SIMS can be collected in the static mode in which the surface is only minimally disrupted, or in the dynamic mode in which material is removed so that the composition can be detemiined as a fiinction of depth below the surface. SIMS has also been used along with a shadow and blocking cone analysis as a probe of surface structure [70]. 

Finally, it is difficult to caUbrate the depth scale in a depth profile. This situation is made more compHcated by different sputtering rates of materials. Despite these shortcomings, depth profiling by simultaneous ion sputtering/aes is commonly employed, because it is one of the few techniques that can provide information about buried interfaces, albeit in a destmctive manner. 

Plasmas at fusion temperatures cannot be kept in ordinary containers because the energetic ions and electrons would rapidly coUide with the walls and dissipate theit energy. A significant loss mechanism results from enhanced radiation by the electrons in the presence of impurity ions sputtered off the container walls by the plasma. Therefore, some method must be found to contain the plasma at elevated temperature without using material containers. 

Yes tilting or ion sputtering Standards required Few percent to tens of percent Few tenths of a percent 0.07-3.0 nm... 

An introduction to the principles behind SPI-SALI, this ankle presents a theoretical discussion of why SPI-SALI is much less fragmenting than MPI-SALI. Examples are shown which describe the additional fragmentation induced by the desorption beam—in this case ESD is compared to ion sputtering. The main focus of the article is the advantages of SPI-SALI for surface analysis of bulk organic polymers. 

Useful yield provides an overall measure of the extent to which the sputtered material is used for analysis. It is a quantity employed to estimate the sensitivity of the mass spectrometric method. Values of Y (X (A)) for elements typically range from 10 to 10 in TOF SIMS. The number of sputtered particles A per incident primary ion (sputtering yield) can be measured from elemental and multielemental standards under different operational conditions and can, therefore, by judicious interpolation between standards, be estimated with reasonable accuracy for the material being analyzed. 

The SIMS system is mounted on a UHV spectrometer which also has XPS, UPS, LEED and thermal desorption capabilities ( ). Heating is achieved by electron bombardment from a filament mounted on the manipulator behind the sample. Cooling is achieved by circulating liquid N2 or He. Temperatures of 25K can be reached. The samples used, Ni(lOO), Cu(17%) Ni(83%) (100) and (111) and Ag(lll) were oriented within 1 and cleaned in situ by standard heating and Ar ion sputtering procedures. 

The plasma potential is the maximum value with which ions can be accelerated from the edge of the sheath towards the substrate, located at the grounded electrode. This may cause ion bombardment, which may induce ion-surface interactions such as enhancement of adatom diffusion, displacement of surface atoms, trapping or sticking of incident ions, sputtering, and implantation see Section 1.6.2.1. 

The catalytic preformance of Co crystals with two surface conditions were compared annealed crystals with large atomically flat terraces and Ar+ ion sputtered surfaces which produced a high population of surface defects. A sequence of PM-RAIRS spectra are shown in Figure 3.2 during exposure of a sputtered Co (0001) surface to mixtures of H2 and CO, with the temperature and pressure for each spectrum indicated in the figure. 

The impact of an ion beam on the electrode surface can result in the transfer of the kinetic energy of the ions to the surface atoms and their release into the vacuum as a wide range of species—atoms, molecules, ions, atomic aggregates (clusters), and molecular fragments. This is the effect of ion sputtering. The SIMS secondary ion mass spectrometry) method deals with the mass spectrometry of sputtered ions. The SIMS method has high analytical sensitivity and, in contrast to other methods of surface analysis, permits a study of isotopes. In materials science, the SIMS method is the third most often used method of surface analysis (after AES and XPS) it has so far been used only rarely in electrochemistry. 

Fig. 3 Ar+ ion sputtering of a surface, which removes contaminant or oxide layers, exposing a clean surface for analysis... 

Sputtering is a reasonably well understood phenomenon [6]. Sputter yields depend on the properties of the sample as well as on those of the incident ions. Sputter yields of the elements vary roughly between I and 10 (see Fig. 4.3), with a few exceptions on the low side, such as bismuth with a sputter yield around 0.1 under SIMS conditions, and on the high side, such as zinc, which has a sputter yield of around 15 under 5 keV argon bombardment. 

The terms surface ionization mass spectrometry (SIMS) and ion sputtering are often used when accelerated atoms such as Xe or ions such as Ar+ strike a surface causing ionization of the material on the surface. The surface can be solid or liquid in the form of a solution or a suspension in the solvent. In this section, the terms fast atom bombardment (FAB) and fast ion bombardment (FIB) will be used. 

In secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), a primary ion beam bombards the surface and a mass spectrometer analyses the ions sputtered from the surface by the primary bombardment. This extremely sensitive technique provides both elemental and structural information. 

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