PNNL

Abstract

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) depth profiling of sucrose thin films were investigated using 10 keV C60+, 20 keV C602+, 30 keV C603+, 250 eV, 500 eV and 1000 eV Cs+ and O2+ as sputtering ions. With C60n+ ions, the molecular ion signal initially decreases, and reaches a steady-state that is about 38-51% of its original intensity, depending on the energy of the C60n+ ions. On the contrary, with Cs+ and O2+ sputtering, molecular ion signals decrease quickly to the noise level, even using low energy (250 eV) sputtering ions. In addition, the sucrose/Si interface by C60+ sputtering is much narrower than that of Cs+ and O2+ sputtering. To understand the mechanisms of sputtering-induced damage by these ions, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to characterize the bottoms of these sputter craters. XPS data show very little chemical change in the C60+ sputter crater, while considerable amorphous carbon was found in the O2+ and Cs+ sputter craters, indicating extensive decomposition of the sucrose molecules. AFM images show a very flat bottom in the C60+ sputter crater, while the Cs+ and O2+ sputter crater bottoms are significantly rougher than that of the C60+ sputter crater. Based on above data, we developed a simple model to explain different damage mechanisms during sputtering process.