Auger chemical shift analysis and its applications to the identification of interface species in thin films

The relationships between the chemical shift of Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and chemical valence, the electronegativity difference and the effective radium of ion in compounds have been investigated. The kinetic energy of AES decreases as the chemical valence and the electronegativity difference increases, but it increases as the effective radium of metal ion increases. Combined with AES depth profile analysis, the chemical shift analysis of AES is able to measure the interfacial species along the depth. Several thin film systems have been studied using this method. The surface and interface species formed by surface and interface reaction have been identified successfully. The results indicate that the chemical shift analysis of AES can be applied to the identification of chemical species in many fields, such as surface and interface reaction, ion implantation and reactive deposition of a thin film.