Secondary ion mass spectrometry with gas cluster ion beams

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) with gas cluster ion beams was studied with experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to achieve a high-resolution depth profiling. For this purpose, it is important to prevent both ion mixing and the surface roughening due to energetic ions. As the Ar cluster ion beams shows high secondary ion yield and surface smoothing effects in the low-energy regime, it is suitable for the primary ion beam of SIMS. From MD simulations of Ar cluster ion impact on Si, ion mixing is heavier than than those for Ar monomer ions at the same energy per atom, because the energy density at the impact point is extremely high. However, the sputtering yields with Ar cluster ions are one or two orders of magnitude higher than that with Ar monomer ions at the same energy per atom. Comparing at the ion energy where the ion-mixing depths are the same by both Ar cluster and Ar monomer ions, cluster ions show almost 10 times higher sputtering yield than by Ar monomer ions. A preliminary experiment of SIMS with Ar cluster ion was performed and a mass resolution of several nm was achieved for a Ta film.