Determination of thin film growth mechanisms of deposited metal oxides by a combined use of ISS and XPS

A mathematical formalism has been developed to describe the evolution of the intensity of ion scattering spectroscopy ISS.against X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy XPS.peaks when a thin film is deposited on a flat substrate. The formalism permits to differentiate layer by layer from island growth mechanisms and provide an approximate value of the thickness of a homogeneous layer of the deposited film. The model has been applied to study the deposition of oxide thin films SnO, SnO2, CoO, Co3O4.on substrates of other oxide materials MgO, SiO2.. q1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.