Depth-profile analysis of thermoelectric layers on Si wafers by pulsed r.f. glow discharge time-of-flight mass spectrometry

In this work the depth-profile analysis of thermoelectric layers deposited on Au and Cr covered Si wafers with the aid of pulsed radiofrequency glow discharge time-of-flight mass spectrometry (pulsed RF-GD-TOFMS also called plasma profiling TOFMS (PP-TOFMS™)) is described. For thermoelectric materials the depth resolutions obtained with both PP-TOFMS and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) are shown to be well comparable and in the order of the roughness of the corresponding layers (between 20 and 3700 nm). With both methods a direct solid analysis without any preparation steps is possible. In addition, the analysis of the samples with PP-TOFMS proved to be faster by a factor of 26 compared to SIMS, as sputtering rates were found to be 80 nm s−1 and 3 nm s−1, respectively. For the analyzed samples the results of PP-TOFMS and SIMS show that a homogeneous deposition was obtained. Quantitative results for all samples could also be obtained directly by PP-TOFMS when the stoichiometry of one sample was determined beforehand for instance by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (SEM-EDX). For Bi2Te3 the standard deviation for the main component concentrations within one sample then is found to be between 1.1% and 1.9% and it is 3.6% from sample to sample. For Sb2Te3 the values within one sample are from 1.7% to 4.2% and from sample to sample 5.3%, respectively. - Highlights: ► Depth resolution in sub micrometer size by glow discharge mass spectrometry. ► Bi and Sb telluride layers composition with GD-TOF-MS, ICP-OES and SEM-EDX agree. ► Homogeneities of layers measured with GD-TOF-MS and SIMS agree.