Calculations of Auger intensity versus beam position for a sample with layers perpendicular to its surface

L Zommer (1) , A Jablonski (1) , Senoner M (1) , Wirth Th (1) , Unger W (1) , Osterle W (1) , Kaiander I (1)

1 Institute of physical chemistry

Recent advances in nanotechnology are a driving force for the improvement of lateral resolution in advanced analytical techniques such as SEM or SAM. Special samples with multilayers which are perpendicular to their surface are presently proposed for testing the lateral resolution, as discussed in recent works of Senoner et al (2004 Surface Interface Anal. 36 1423). The relevant experiment needs a theoretical description based on a recent progress in the theory. Monte Carlo simulations of electron trajectories make possible an accurate description of the considered system. We selected exemplary samples, with layers perpendicular to the surface. The layer materials are elemental solids with high, medium and low atomic numbers, i.e. Au|Cu|Au and Au|Si|Au. For these systems calculations of the Auger current versus beam position were performed. We found that, for system with layers consisting of elements of considerably different atomic numbers, the relation can have unexpected extreme. This observation can happen to be important in analysis of SAM pictures.

Mots clés: Electron-solid interactions; elastic and inelastic scattering; Monte Carlo algorithm; Computer simulation; Continuous slowing down approximation; Backscattering yield; Auger current

L Zommer, A Jablonski, Senoner M , Wirth Th, Unger W , et al.. Calculations of Auger intensity versus beam position for a sample with layers perpendicular to its surface. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2010, 43 (27), pp.275301. ⟨10.1088/0022-3727/43/27/275301⟩. ⟨hal-00569642⟩