Challenges and Current Developments in Modern Ion Beam Analysis

The development of technology and science to process, modify and finally analyze ever smaller structures in the range of a few nanometers or few monolayers on the surface leads to new challenges for modern ion beam analysis. This is accompanied by ever increasing demands on lateral resolution and more detailed questions on layer composition on an atomic depth scale.

The complexity of processing materials for nanoelectronics is also constantly increasing. Elemental analysis is no longer limited to the quantification of a few atomic species and the classic sorting of ion beam analysis methods such as “heavy element in light matrix” is often only the exception in practice.

Ever thinner but nevertheless more complex layer structures are often associated with in-creasing sensitivity to external influences. Ion beam analysis under in-situ conditions has therefore developed into an established method. Furthermore, it is often not only the state after processing that is of interest for technological questions, but the processes themselves. “Online” IBA under process conditions is therefore increasingly in demand.

This presentation is intended to provide an overview on recent and ongoing methodical developments at the HZDR Ion Beam Center addressing above mentioned challenges. Next to the development and implementation of new techniques, emphasis is also put on modern approaches on the analysis of the experimental data arising from those setups.