Investigating oxygen flooding at oblique 2 and 1 keV oxygen sputtering for microelectronics support applications

Low energy (2.1 and 1 keV) oxygen bombardment at oblique incidence in combination with oxygen flooding was applied to two kinds of epitaxially grown, boron-doped samples. The angles of incidence ranged between 54° and 44°, realized in a Cameca 6f. At surface saturation conditions, no indication of ripples formation was found up to at least 700 nm depth. In comparison to measurements at perpendicular oxygen beam incidence (no flooding), the boron decay lengths were about equal, whereas the apparent profile shift was clearly lower (roughly half) in the flooding case. Thus, no disadvantage is found for these oxygen flooding conditions as compared to perpendicular oxygen bombardment conditions.