Study of ion implantation profiles by the PIXE technique

Abstract

The RBS technique is currently used with alpha particles as a non-destructive way of studying concentration depth profiles. This technique is especially convenient in characterizing heavy atom distributions inside a matrix of lighter elements, and its use is less convenient in the case of light elements in a matrix of heavier ones. On the other hand the probing depth is limited by the small range of alpha particles in the matrix. We present here a new procedure for determining ion implantation profiles by means of the PIXE technique and by varying the impinging proton energy. As an example, silicon ions of two energies have been implanted into pure titanium samples in order to obtain implantation profiles with a double peak. The results presented here are in good agreement with the calculations using the TRIM code.