Depth profiles of C, N and O on carbon coated steel surfaces made by IBAD

Abstract The nitrogen ion implantation into steel surfaces by using an oil diffusion vacuum pumping system is superimposed with an ion beam assisted deposition process of a very thin carbon layer. The application of Bragg-curve spectroscopy to elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) of ion beam assisted deposited carbon layers on steel surfaces is described. The ERDA is used for simultaneous depth profiling of the light elements carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Typical results are good selectivity of the atomic charge number Z up to 20 with a depth resolution on the order of 5 to 10 nm and submonolayer sensitivity. The low background in the operative region allows the analysis of profiles down to concentrations of about 0.01% of the stoichiometric ones. The ERDA depth profiling results are shown in correlation to measurements with Auger electron spectroscopy (AES).