Investigation of the depth range through ultra-thin carbon films on magnetic layers by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry

This paper presents an examination of the depth range of magnetic layers through ultra-thin carbon films by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used for comparison of TOF-SIMS. The sampling depth of TOF-SIMS is somewhat smaller than that of XPS. And also, the sampling depth obtained from this analysis is larger than that of the static SIMS (less than 1 nm) [Surf. Interf. Anal. 10 (1987) 384]. Our results suggest that the sampling depth is related to the sample structure (defects or pinholes of nanometer scale), the sensitivity of analytical tools and the emission process.