Contact

Dr. Denise Erb

Staff Scientist
Ion Induced Nanostructures
d.erbAthzdr.de
Phone: +49 351 260 2898

Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES)


Equipment

  • Scanning Auger electron spectrometer Microlab 310F (Fisons) with field-emission cathode and hemispherical sector analyser
  • with accessory XPS-unit (Al/Mg - X-ray tube)

Application fields

The scanning Auger electron spectrometer is mainly used for the determination of depth profiles of ion-implanted and ion-irradiated layers. In addition to the determination of the element concentrations in dependence on the depth, the high energy resolution of the instrument allows for several elements (Si, Al) to obtain informations about possible compound formation in the layer. Further, the spectrometer is used for the two-dimensional analysis of element distributions in microregions (element mapping). The minimal lateral resolution with this instrument is 15 nm, and the analysed area may be varied between 1.5 and some 100 µm².
XPS  (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) enables to determine the binding energies of atoms in the surface layer region (2 - 5 nm) and thus to characterize the bonding states. The X-ray spot has a size of about 2x3 mm².