Abstract

The effective study of molecular physics of beam-activated chemical reactions would benefit from measuring the near surface (<3nm) elemental composition. Ideally, the quantitative composition would provide not only the major and minor constituents, as is done by ESCA and AES, but also the trace constituents which may contribute to catalytic or inhibitor effects for the reaction of interest. An example of a possible catalytic effect is the role of Fe on the reaction of nitrogen with the silicon surface [1]. A new analytical technique, Total Reflection X-Ray Fluorescence (TXRF) analysis, may non-destructively provide some of this information (elements with atomic number above 13) when the sample is planar. An example application related to beam/surface interactions would be the pre- and post-processing measurement of trace heavy metals on silicon wafers where the cleaning process uses UV-irradiation to activate the removal of trace metals [2].

© 1989 Optical Society of America