Depth profiling of oxygen in oxide films by 18O(p,α)15N nuclear reaction analysis

The paper describes the determination and depth profiling of oxygen in thin oxide films using 18O(p,α)15N nuclear reaction. The excitation function of 18O(p,α)15N nuclear reaction exhibits a resonance at 629 keV and a plateau at 730 keV with uniform cross-section. The resonance is used to determine the depth profile of oxygen in films while the plateau, to estimate its overall concentration. The resonance, characterized by a width of 2.1 keV enables high-depth resolution (∼20 nm) measurements and has a probing depth of more than a micron. The paper presents depth profile measurements of oxygen in several metal oxide films (SiO2, TiO2 and HfO2) using this resonance. Possible interferences arising from 15N(p,α)12C, 19F(p,α)16O and 11B(p,α)2α nuclear reactions are also discussed. It has been shown that it can serve as a suitable alternative to 3.05 MeV 16O(α,α)16O resonant scattering which is generally used for depth profiling oxygen. It is, in fact, more reliable and precise in materials that witness significant large angle multiple scattering. It can also be advantageously used to monitor 18O, when used as a tracer. (author)