Depth Profiling of Ta2O5 thin Layer on Ta Foil by Ion Scattering Spectrometry and Ion Sputtering

Ion sputter profiling In conjunction with surface analysis is becoming nowadays the most important method to obtain composition depth profiles. Its application concerns all fields of Materials Science: microelectronics, thin films technology, catalysis, adhesion, corrosion,… However, from the time dependence of the surface signal, the correct derivation of the true composition profile is not obvious. To achieve this goal the knowledge of the depth resolution achieved by ion beam sputtering is crucial. A lot of experimental and theoretical work was performed on these lines to determine the different factors contributing in this depth resolution (1,2).