Characterization of III-V Materials by Resonance Ionization Mass Spectrometry.

Abstract

Layered, III-V compound semiconductors are important as both electrical and optical devices in communications technology. Often, these heterostructures have complicated elemental distributions that need quantitative characterization. Depth profiling by sputtering through these layered materials is one method of obtaining elemental distributions. Under optimum conditions, atoms are the predominantly sputtered product; the atom flux therefore provides information about the sample that is relatively free from chemical (matrix) interferences. Resonance Ionization Mass Spectrometry (RIMS) [1] is used to record elemental depth profiles by probing the atom flux from sputtered III-V heterostructures providing information that is quite representative of the sputtering sample.