SURFACE SENSITIVITY OF ION-INDUCED AUGER-ELECTRON EMISSION (IAE) SPECTROSCOPY

We investigated the electron emission induced by energetic sputter-dep osited Si particles during ion beam sputter deposition of Si on Ge sub strate. Electron emission is strictly similar to the ion-induced Auger (IAE) Si spectra and originates in Si-Si collisions. Monitoring this ''IAE-like'' Si yield during the Si layer-by-layer growth, we measured the surface sensitivity of particle-induced electron emission for dif ferent energies of the involved particles and for different experiment al geometries. We found that the depth sampled by IAE spectroscopy cri tically depends on the experimental parameters. The surface sensitivit y of IAE is, in several cases, larger than that of the corresponding, conventional electron-induced Auger electron emission.