The dose dependence of Si sputtering with low energy ions in shallow depth profiling

The transient Si sputtering yield change of an amorphous Si for normal incident 500 eV O2+ ion bombardment under oxygen flooding condition was measured quantitatively with in situ MEIS. The Si sputtering yield decreased very rapidly from 1.4 Si atoms/O2+ at the initial stage to less than 0.1 Si atoms/O2+ at the steady state around 2×1016 O2+ cm−2. The change of the initial transient Si sputtering yield change corresponds to the 1.6 nm shift to the shallower depth in SIMS depth profiling.