Surface topography development and ion mixing in the study of depth profiling of multilayered structures

The depth profiling in combination with sputtering of multilayered structur es is considered by the proposed models. In order to emphasize the changes in the surface composition produced by the processes of surface topography development and ion mixing during profiling two different models are propos ed and considered separately. The first one includes the processes of surfa ce roughening as a result of sputtering and smoothing of rough surface as a result of surface atom migration (no mixing in the bulk of sample). The se cond model includes the sequential removal of surface atoms (no surface rou ghening) and ion mixing in the bulk of the sample. The dependencies of the main characteristics such as the amplitude and the shape of the peaks of th e oscillations of the surface concentration, surface roughness and depth re solution on sputtering time and ion beam parameters are calculated and anal yzed. The influence of the ion energy, angle of incidence, ion flux and sub strate temperature to the depth profile of multilayered structure are studi ed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.