Composition Quantification of SiGeSn Alloys Through Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry: Calibration Methodologies and Validation With Atom Probe Tomography
Date
2024-09-09
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
Abstract
Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is a powerful technique for elemental compositional analysis and depth profiling of materials. However, it encounters the problem of matrix effects that hinder its application. In this work, we introduce a pioneering ToF-SIMS calibration method tailored for SixGeySnz ternary alloys. SixGe1-x and Ge1-zSnz binary alloys with known compositions are used as calibration reference samples. Through a systematic SIMS quantification study of SiGe and GeSn binary alloys, we unveil a linear correlation between secondary ion intensity ratio and composition ratio for both SiGe and GeSn binary alloys, effectively mitigating the matrix effects. Extracted relative sensitivity factor (RSF) value from SixGe1-x (0.07 < x < 0.83) and Ge1-zSnz (0.066 < z < 0.183) binary alloys are subsequently applied to those of SixGeySnz (0.011 < x < 0.113, 0.863 < y < 0.935 and 0.023 < z < 0.103) ternary alloys for elemental compositions quantification. These values are cross-checked by Atom Probe Tomography (APT) analysis, an indication of the great accuracy and reliability of as-developed ToF-SIMS calibration process. The proposed method and its reference sample selection strategy in this work provide a low-cost as well as simple-to-follow calibration route for SiGeSn composition analysis, thus driving the development of next-generation multifunctional SiGeSn-related semiconductor devices.
Description
This article was originally published in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTQE.2024.3456439
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Keywords
SiGeSn, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), atom probe tomography, matrix effect suppression
Citation
H. Zhao et al., "Composition Quantification of SiGeSn Alloys Through Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry: Calibration Methodologies and Validation With Atom Probe Tomography," in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, vol. 31, no. 1: SiGeSn Infrared Photon. and Quantum Electronics, pp. 1-8, Jan.-Feb. 2025, Art no. 7900208, doi: 10.1109/JSTQE.2024.3456439.