Ion bombardment induced segregation effects in VDx studied by SIMS and SNMS

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and complementary secondary neutral (particle) mass spectrometry (SNMS) investigations on VDx samples were carried out to study deuterium segregation effects induced by ion bombardment. It could be shown that the sputter process causes a distortion of the near-surface region, which leads, due to the extremely high mobility of deuterium in vanadium, to a deuterium segregation to the surface, i.e. a deuterium enrichment in the sputtered area, and at the same time to a deuterium impoverishment in the bulk (secondary preferential sputtering effect). (orig.)