Plasma Profiling Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry for Fast Elemental Analysis of Semiconductor Structures with Depth Resolution in the Nanometer Range

Plasma profiling time of flight mass spectrometry (PP-TOFMS) has recently gained interest as it enables the elemental profiling of semiconductor structures with high depth resolution in short acquisition times. As recently shown by Tempez et al PP-TOFMS can be used to obtain the composition within structures of modern field effect transistors [1]. There, the results were compared to conventional SIMS measurements. In the present study, we compare PP-TOFMS measurements of an Al-/In-/GaN quantum well multi stack to established micro- and nanoanalysis techniques like cathodoluminescence (CL), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). We show that PP-TOFMS is able to resolve the layer structure of the sample even more than 500 nm deep into the sample and allows the determination of a relative elemental composition with an accuracy of about 10 rel%. Therefore, it is an extremely rapid alternative method to obtain semiconductor elemental depth profiles without the expensive and time consuming sample preparation required for TEM. Besides, PP-TOFMS offers better depth resolution and more elemental information than, for example, electrochemical capacitance–voltage (ECV) evaluations, since all elements are detected in parallel and not only electrically (ECV) or optically (CL) active elements are observed.