THEORETICAL APPROXIMATIONS FOR DEPTH RESOLUTION CALCULATIONS IN IBA METHODS

One of the most important parameters in depth profiling using ion beam analysis (IBA) is depth resolution. Theoretical approximations are presented that lead to relatively fast calculations for the following contributions: energy and angular spread of the beam; geometric spread caused by finite beam size and detector's solid angle; energy straggling and multiple scattering in the sample; effect of the absorber foil; energy resolution of the detection method and resonance width in resonance methods. Multilayered multi-elemental targets are also considered and the different contributions are composed statistically by a method that takes into account the peculiar shapes of the corresponding probability densities. A computer code, DEPTH, successfully demonstrated the speed and reliability of the calculations.