A new approach for determining accurate chemical distributions using in-situ GCIB cross-section imaging

Time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF‐SIMS) has become widely used to characterize various kinds of materials, especially organic materials. It has recently become possible to investigate the molecular distributions underneath the surface using Ar‐GCIB (gas cluster ion beam) depth profiling. It is an important new capability for practical use of TOF‐SIMS because the subsurface and interface chemistry plays an important role in the performance of many products. However, it is difficult to obtain accurate chemical depth distributions using sputter depth profiling when the sample has a significant surface roughness and/or inhomogeneous structure. In order to resolve this problem, we proposed an approach to determine the accurate chemical distributions using GCIB cross‐section imaging method. In this study, this approach was demonstrated for practical organic samples, and accurate chemical depth distributions were determined. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.