Very high fluence nitrogen implantations in metals studied by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry

Abstract

This paper reports a study of 14N+ implanted Ti and Zr films analysed by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS). The fluences ranged from 4.0–10.0 × 1017 atoms·cm−2 and energies of 15–20 keV. Here, the nitrogen depth distributions were obtained simultaneously and independently for each RBS spectrum from the direct nitrogen signal and from the reduction of the backscattered yield from Ti and Zr (deficiency method). Fits to the RBS spectra show that the deficiency method clearly underestimates the 14N yield by 32% for Ti (and 45% for Zr) when compared to the direct nitrogen signal. This discrepancy reduces to 23% for Ti (and 43% for Zr) when the presence of nitrogen bubbles are simulated in the fits.