抄録
Surface-altered layers of TiN irradiated with argon ions under various conditions of ion energy from 1.5 to 5 keV and incidence angle from 25° to 90° were studied by means of XPS. Some depression in the nitrogen content is caused by the irradiation. The extent of the depression increases nearly in proportion to the incidence angle and does not vary with ion energy. The depth profiles of nitrogen in the altered layers were simulated with deconvoluting angle-resolved XPS data based on a multiple layer model. As the incidence angle and/or ion energy becomes larger, the altered layer becomes thicker. At low incidence angle, some rise in the nitrogen content in the top surface is observed. From the results, it is seen that the Ar ion etching conditions of lower ion energy and smaller incidence angle are useful for avoiding significant influence from an altered alyer in in-depth analysis by XPS.
