Depth profiling of Al2O3<ce:hsp sp="0.25"/>+<ce:hsp sp="0.25"/>TiO2 nanolaminates by means of a time-of-flight energy spectrometer

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is currently a widespread method to grow conformal thin films with a sub-nm thickness control. By using ALD for nanolaminate oxides, it is possible to fine tune the electrical, optical and mechanical properties of thin films. In this study the elemental depth profiles and surface roughnesses were determined for Al2O3+TiO2 nanolaminates with nominal single-layer thicknesses of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20nm and total thickness between 40nm and 60nm. The depth profiles were measured by means of a time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis (ToF-ERDA) spectrometer recently installed at the University of Jyvaeskylae. In TOF-E measurements 63Cu, 35Cl, 12C and 4He ions with energies ranging from 0.5 to 10MeV, were used and depth profiles of the whole nanolaminate film could be analyzed down to 5nm individual layer thickness.