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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Peter Cumpson, Dr Jose Portoles, Dr Naoko Sano
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Traditionally polymer depth profiling by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been dominated by the damage introduced by the ion beam rather than the X-rays. With the introduction of polyatomic and especially argon gas cluster ion-beam (GCIB) sources for XPS instruments, this is no longer the case, and either source of damage may be important (or dominate) under particular conditions. Importantly, while ion-beam damage is a near-surface effect, X-ray damage may extend micrometres into the bulk of the sample, so that the accumulation of X-ray damage during long depth profiles may be very significant. We have observed craters of similar dimensions to the X-ray spot well within the perimeter of sputter craters, indicating that X-rays can assist GCIB sputtering very significantly. We have measured experimentally sputter craters in 13 different polymers. The results show that X-ray exposure can introduce much more topography than might previously have been expected, through both thermal and direct X-ray degradation. This can increase the depth of a crater by a remarkable factor, up to three in the case of poly-L-lactic acid and polychlorotrifluorothylene under reasonably normal XPS conditions. This may be a major source of the loss of depth resolution in sputter depth profiles of polymers.
Author(s): Cumpson PJ, Portoles JF, Sano N
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Surface and Interface Analysis
Year: 2013
Volume: 45
Issue: 2
Pages: 601-604
Print publication date: 07/12/2012
ISSN (print): 0142-2421
ISSN (electronic): 1096-9918
Publisher: Wiley
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/sia.5198
DOI: 10.1002/sia.5198
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