Fei Comapny

Leonid Vasilyev

Sergey Borodyansky

Charles E Bryson, Iii

Robert Linder

Dmitri Klyachko

Dimitri Klyachko

An electron analyzer and its method of operation useful for determining the intensity of a peak in the electron spectrum. The invention is particularly useful for determining the intensity of an Auger peak of a given element in the sample being probed and associating the intensity with a concentration of that element in the sample. The electron spectrum is measured above and below the anticipated peak. The data near the peak are not used. The remaining data above the peak and below the peak are fit to respective equations linearly dependent upon the measurement energy. The difference of the two equations at the value of the peak energy is associated with the peak intensity and the elemental concentration. The invention can be applied to measuring nitrogen concentration in a thin protective film of amorphous carbon or diamond.

Step function determination of Auger peak intensity

A method and apparatus for measuring the thickness of a thin coating, having a thickness on the order of 1 to 10 nm, of one material formed over a substrate of another material of significantly different atomic number, for example, a carbon coating on a ferromagnetic substrate. A primary radiation source, for example, of electrons or X-ray, creates low-energy secondary electrons in the substrate. The intensity of inelastically scattered electrons generally increases with film thickness. The secondary electron spectrum measured for a test sample is compared with the spectra for a plurality of similar reference samples of the same set of compositions, and a test thickness is thereby determined. The method may be practice on conventional electron spectrometers with the addition of some programmed analysis. Various techniques are available for extracting the data and comparing the test and reference data.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Leonid Vasilyev