The new Heavy Ion ERDA set up at iThemba LABS Gauteng: Multilayer thin film depth profiling using direct calculation and Monte Carlo simulation codes

Abstract

We report here on the recently built Heavy Ion ERDA set up at iThemba LABS Gauteng; describing a typ-ical application in the study of interfacial reactions in an Al 2 O 3 -Ti ceramic-metal multilayer structure annealed in vacuum at 800 °C for 2 h. Depth profile extraction was found to be best obtained through combined use of direct calculation and Monte Carlo simulation codes as opposed to using just either of the methods. The obtained profile suggests a case of the Kirkendall effect, whereupon the inter-diffu-sion between the metal and the ceramic was largely due to the faster diffusion of the metal into the amor-phous ceramic than diffusion of the ceramic elements into the metallic layer.

Iodine assisted retainment of implanted silver in 6H-SiC at high temperatures

“…[20]. This coincidence measurement leads to separation of recoil particles according to their atomic mass.…”

Stopping force of Ti for 6 ⩽ Z ⩽ 29 ions measured by time of flight spectrometry

“…Stopping force measurements were done at the iThemba LABS 6 MV tandem accelerator, using the Heavy Ion ERDA set up [16]. A 26.0 MeV 63 Cu 7+ projectile beam was used to forward recoil 12 C and 27 Al ion species from C-graphite and thick Al 2 O 3 -on-Si target samples, respectively, towards the target stopper foil.…”

“…A 26.0 MeV 63 Cu 7+ projectile beam was used to forward recoil 12 C and 27 Al ion species from C-graphite and thick Al 2 O 3 -on-Si target samples, respectively, towards the target stopper foil. Similarly 16 O and 24 Mg ions were recoiled off a thick MgO target layer on a silicon substrate. Copper ions incident on the stopper foil were obtained by scattering the incident beam off a thick Au-on-Si layer sample.…”

“…This article adds on to earlier contributions made by our group to the global database of heavy ion stopping forces of different target materials. We report here on measurements carried out to determine the stopping force of Ti for 12 C, 16 particular study was measured by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) using 2 MeV He + ions at the iThemba LABS 6 MV Van de Graff accelerator. The backscattering angle was set at 165°and the foil surface normal tilted off the beam axis by 10°, away from the detector, to increase the beam path length for better depth resolution.…”

Ion beam effects of 26.0 MeV Cu 7+ ions in thin metallic and insulating films during Heavy Ion ERDA measurements

“…This latter energy region is where most small accelerator labs involved in heavy ion Time-of-Flight (ToF) ERDA operate [9,[15][16][17][18][19][20]. The Heavy Ion ERDA technique at iThemba LABS Gauteng [19] was set up recently and there are continual studies to optimise its performance subject to existing infrastructural limitations.…”