The influences of electron and ion beam conditions on Auger carbon line shapes acquired on diamond and DLC films

• Published in: Surface & coatings technology Vol. 71; no. 1; pp. 37 - 44
• Main Authors: Zhu, W., deVries, J.E., Tamor, M.A., Simon Ng, K.Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 01-02-1995; Elsevier
• Subjects: Auger diamond line shape; Auger DLC line shape; Auger electron spectroscopy; Chemical vapor deposition (including plasma-enhanced cvd, mocvd, etc.); Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Electron beam effects; Exact sciences and technology; Ion sputtering effects; Materials science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Physics; Auger electron spectroscopy; Auger diamond line shape; Ion sputtering effects; Electron beam effects; Auger DLC line shape; CVD; Characterization; Thin films; Synthetic diamond; Diamonds; Sprays; Polycrystals; Experimental study; AES
• ISSN: 0257-8972; 1879-3347
• DOI: 10.1016/0257-8972(94)02299-6

Auger electron spectroscopy was used to characterize a boron-doped, CVD-deposited homoepitaxial diamond film, a well-faceted polycrystalline diamond film, cleaved highly oriented pyrolytic graphite and diamond-like carbon (DLC) films grown on Si wafers with different sample biases. This study focused on the influence of the conditions of electron beam and ion beam on the diamond and DLC Auger line shapes. The Auger results revealed that under 1 keV Ar
+ ion sputtering, when the ion dose was below 1.4 × 10
13 ions cm
−2, the diamond Auger line shape remained similar to that of the unsputtered diamond film; with the increase of the ion dose, the line shape evolved to the one resembling graphite. Under the same ion dose, the increase or decrease of the ion beam energy also would cause the corresponding changes of the line shape. Ar sputtering appears to have similar effects on the line shape of DLC films. The increase of the electron beam current from 100 nA to 5 μA at a constant electron beam energy of 10 keV did not affect the main features of the diamond Auger line shape from the boron-doped homoepitaxial diamond film. Use of the electron and ion beam conditions determined in this study can allow accurate Auger analysis of diamond films without the introduction of artifacts.