AVS 49th International Symposium
    Applied Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session AS-TuA

Paper AS-TuA5
Analysis Area and Sample Area Viewed by the Analyzer in a Scanning Auger Microscope

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 3:20 pm, Room C-106

Session: Imaging in Surface Analysis
Presenter: C.J. Powell, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Authors: C.J. Powell, National Institute of Standards and Technology
S.A. Wight, National Institute of Standards and Technology
J.T. Armstrong, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Correspondent: Click to Email
The lateral resolution, @delta@r, is a critical parameter in a scanning Auger microscope (SAM) since it is a measure of the distinguishability of small objects. For quantitative interpretations of measured Auger signals, however, it is necessary to consider also the analysis area (the area from which all or a defined percentage of the detected signal originates). We report results of model calculations (based on the work of Cazaux@footnote 1@) that show how the analysis area depends on material parameters associated with backscattered electrons in a SAM. These results are compared with measurements of signal changes as the incident beam in a commercial SAM is scanned across a chemical edge consisting of Cr/CrO@sub 2@ on indium-tin-oxide. As the beam voltage is increased from 5 kV to 20 kV, the effects of backscattering on the analysis area become more pronounced, in general agreement with the calculations. These results indicate that the analysis area can be much greater than @pi@(@delta@r)@super 2@. In addition, we report on measurements of the sample area viewed by the analyzer in the SAM for different electron energies and different analyzer operating conditions. Changes in the sample area viewed by the analyzer as a function of electron energy need to be carefully considered in SAM measurements with different rastered areas. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@J. Cazaux, Surf. Interface Anal. 14, 354 (1989).