Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2011
Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is an effective and powerful analytical technique, widely used in accurately determining dopant distributions (depth profiles). However, primary ion beam induced mass transport (ion mixing), especially the residual effect during SIMS profile measurements, greatly limits theaccuracy at nanometer depth resolutions by displacing and broadening the measured depth profile. In this paper, we present a simple deconvolution algorithm based on the general characteristics of the experimentally observed SIMS response function to reduce this broadening effect, thereby providing more accurate depth profiles. The results for several specific applications of this approach are presented and its strengths and limitations are discussed.