Channeling-induced asymmetric distortion of depth profiles from polycrystalline-TiN/Ti/TiN(001) trilayers during secondary ion mass spectrometry
- Department of Materials Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180 (United States)
- Coordinated Science Laboratory, Materials Research Laboratory, and Department of Materials Science, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899 (United States)
Asymmetric depth profiles of elemental and molecular secondary ions are obtained during secondary ion mass spectrometry analyses of polycrystalline-TiN/Ti/TiN(001) trilayers using a Cs{sup +} ion beam. The sputter-etching rate R and the secondary ion yield Y from TiN(001) layers are strongly dependent on the incidence angle of the primary ion beam. When the azimuthal angle between the incident beam and one of the in-plane <100> directions in TiN(001) is varied from 0 degree sign to 40 degree sign , R{sub TiN(001)} varies by more than 40% and Y{sub TiN(001)} by nearly a factor of 3. In contrast, for polycrystalline TiN layers, R{sub polyTiN} and Y{sub polyTiN} are invariant with incident beam angle. Channeling of primary ions and secondary recoils through 0.106-nm-wide channels between highly aligned (100) or (010) planes in TiN(001), and the lack of such correlated long-range alignment in polycrystalline TiN, are the major reasons for the observed differences. Channeling in the TiN(001) layer results in a sharp decrease of Y{sub Ti} in the Ti layer immediately prior to the Ti/TiN(001) interface and increases the interface width, thus degrading depth resolution. These profile distortion effects can be eliminated either by sample rotation during profiling or by using an O{sub 2}{sup +} primary beam. (c) 2000 American Vacuum Society.
- OSTI ID:
- 20216757
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology. B, Microelectronics Processing and Phenomena, Vol. 18, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: May 2000; ISSN 0734-211X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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