CONVERSION ALGORITHM FOR ERDA MULTIELEMENT SPECTRA AND ITS APPLICATION TO THIN-FILM PROBLEMS

A computer program was designed for the conversion of element-resolved energy spectra obtained from elastic recoil detection analysis into c omposition depth profiles. The algorithm is described in detail. An im portant feature of the program is that the contribution of the analyze d elements to the stopping power is accounted for self-consistently. E xtensions of the algorithm address the problem of the simultaneous ana lysis of recoil and forward scattering events, respectively, and of di stortions in the recoil spectra due to the presence of target constitu ents with isotopic distributions that cannot be resolved when using st andard ionization chambers for recoil detection. Two examples are give n to demonstrate how one may benefit from the capabilities of the conv ersion program in the context of specific thin film problems. The firs t example addresses compositional changes in Si3N4/C bilayers due to N -ion implantation, while the second one is dealing with the problem of impurity accumulation at the hexagonal-to-cubic phase boundary in BN films. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.