Study of Secondary Ion Emission in the “Thermal Spike” Mode

Abstract

The sources of heavy cluster ions (Au, Bi) used in modern mass spectrometers suggest that the emission of secondary ions is predominantly performed in the thermal spike mode, unlike the previous generation of spectrometers operating with atomic cesium ions and oxygen ions. Here, we verify this assumption using the example of the emission of 11 implanted elements from GaAs upon sputtering by $${\text{Bi}}_{{\text{3}}}^{ + }$$ bismuth ions with an energy of 30 keV. The obtained data on the relative sensitivity factors are analyzed using semiconductor-band theory and the assumption of melt production in the case of the formation of thermal spikes.