A new secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) system with high-intensity cluster ion source

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) with gas cluster ion beams (GCIB) was investigated with experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. A new cluster SIMS system with high-intensity cluster ion source has been developed. Ar cluster ion beam with the average size of 2000 was utilized as a primary ion beam. The beam diameter is less than 1 mm at the target position, and a current density of 10 muA/cm(2) is obtained. The etch rate of Si with this current density is more than 20 nm/min, which is far beyond the etch rate in recent low energy SIMS system. The secondary ion intensity linearly increases with the acceleration voltage. A threshold voltage of a few keV for secondary ion emission was found. These results are consistent with previous sputtering experiments. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.