| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Applied Surface Science | Monday Sessions |
| Session AS+BI-MoM |
| Session: | Organic Depth Profiling |
| Presenter: | E. Niehuis, ION-TOF GmbH, Germany |
| Authors: | E. Niehuis, ION-TOF GmbH, Germany S. Kayser, ION-TOF GmbH, Germany R. Möllers, ION-TOF GmbH, Germany L. Bernard, EMPA, Switzerland H.-J. Hug, EMPA, Switzerland N. Havercroft, ION-TOF USA, Inc. R. Dianoux, NanoScan AG, Switzerland A. Scheidemann, NanoScan AG, Switzerland |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Advances in analytical instrumentation and nanometrology have been the key to the remarkable progress in nanoscience and nanotechnology research over the last two decades. Detailed knowledge of the chemical composition, physical properties and the three dimensional structure of materials and devices at the nanometer scale is required in all phases of the development from exploratory research to concept and prototyping and finally manufacturing.
Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) is a very sensitive surface analytical technique. It provides detailed elemental and molecular information about surfaces, thin layers, interfaces, and full three-dimensional analysis of the sample.
In recent years bismuth clusters have become the standard analysis species for all imaging applications providing a lateral resolution of down to 80 nm. 3D chemical information can be derived by a well-controlled removal of surface layers with an additional sputter beam in a so-called dual beam experiment. Inherent to all 3D TOF-SIMS data is a z-axis with a native time scale instead of a length scale. A starting topography of the initial sample surface as well as an evolving topography due to different erosions rates of the compounds cannot be identified by the technique and yields to relevant distortions.
Scanning force microscopy (SFM), has become the most versatile scanning probe microscopy (SPM) technique since its first application in 1986. In a scanning force microscope, a microscopic tip is scanned over the surface of interest and probes the local properties at each pixel of the scan region. A SFM cannot only map topography up to atomic resolution; it can also map other sample properties with nanometer scale resolution such as local mechanical properties, materials contrast, or electric and magnetic stray fields emanating from the surface.
We have developed a TOF-SIMS / SFM instrument which combines both complementary techniques in a single UHV chamber. The core piece of the new instrument is a high precision, five axes piezo stage which allows fast and accurate navigation between the TOF-SIMS and the SFM analysis position. The combination makes it possible to acquire SFM data before, after and in between TOF-SIMS acquisitions at exactly the same sample position.
In this paper we will present first measurements illustrating the strength of this novel instrument and its potential for a wide range of applications including sputter induced effects on the surface morphology of organic surfaces.