抄録
The ion beam stability is important for achieving reproducible depth profiles. This report describes how the ion beam position shift occurs after turning on the filament, and how this shift affects the results of depth profiling. It was found that the largest shift was more than 200 nm along the y-direction even when the inclined sample holder was used. It requires more than 5 hours to stabilize the ion beam position in our instrument. Immediately after turning on the filament the sputtering rate of SiO2 was 10% smaller than the rate measured after stabilization. However, the depth resolutions were almost the same in both cases. It is advisable to check the stability of the ion beam position before measuring the sputtering rate precisely.
