Collisional atomic mixing: A study of marker broadening and SIMS depth profiling by TRIM-DYNAMIC

Abstract

The collisional mixing of thin metal markers in silicon is investigated with the computer program TRIM-DYNAMIC (T-DYN). This code assumes that at high dose irradiation, the substrate Si or Ge, will get fully amorphized, and the recoil atom can stop in any position after slowing down below a certain final energy E f (taken here as 3 eV). In order to avoid chemical effects, the system Au marker in a silicon matrix was chosen for the TRIM simulation. The results are in good agreement with the experimental findings, as compiled in the review article by Paine and Averback. Similar collisional mixing effects occur in the process of SIMS or Auger electron depth profiling, and cannot be avoided. An example is given here for a thin layer of arsenic vapor deposited on Si and covered by amorphous silicon. The analysing ion beam in this case was 14.5 keV Cs+ incident at 37° towards the surface normal. In comparison with the SIMS measurements by modern depth profiling equipment, again good agreement was found between the T-DYN results and the experiment.