Abstract
Primary ion charging of insulators has been quantitatively investigated in SIMS analysis. Charging was evaluated by monitoring the energy distribution of secondary ions. Charging types are roughly classified into three groups, i.e., a thin film insulator, a lower-resistivity bulk insulator and a high-resistivity bulk insulator. Charging is completely compensated by electron beam flooding for the thin film and the lower-resistivity bulk insulators. However, complete charge compensation cannot be achieved by electron beam flooding for the high-resistivity bulk insulators. It is found that use of a conducting overlayer on a bulk insulator, together with electron beam flooding, can reduce charging. Surface conduction might be responsible for charge compensation. The effective range of surface conduction is about 150 μm.
