Examination of ion-induced Auger electron spectra of Ti, Cr and Co in a mass-selecting Focused Ion Beam with a gold–silicon liquid metal source

Abstract

Ion induced Auger electron spectroscopy is a technique where Auger electrons are produced as a result of energetic ion impact. In this paper, the ion–induced electron spectra of three of the transition metals; Ti, Cr and Co by Si++ and Au+ ions accelerated to 30 and 60 keV are studied. Aside from the low energy plasmon peaks, sharp M23M45M45 Auger transitions with high signal to noise ratio attributed to the metal targets and, in the samples bombarded by Si++ ions, L23MM transition from Si incident ion are also detected. Broad tails next to the main metal Auger peaks are attributed to interatomic transitions between the incident ion and target ions.