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Depth profiling by sputteirng in combination with surface analysis has become a most effective way to determine the depth distribution of composition in thin films. The principles of the method and its fundamental capabilities and limitations are briefly discussed. Various phenomena, the most important of which are due to ion beam induced changes of surface roughness and composition, limit the experimentally achievable depth resolution. Recent progress in studying the influence of sample characteristics and experimental parameters like ion beam energy and incidence angle as well as sample rotation on depth resolution and its dependence on the sputtered depth serves as a guideline for optimized profiling conditions. With these, even for metallic samples and sputtered depths approaching micrometer dimension, a depth resolution of a few nanometers can be obtained. Knowledge of the depth resolution function allows deconvolution of a measured, normalized profile in order to obtain the true depth distribution of composition.

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Groups III impurity (aluminum or boron) has been introduced into a-SiC:H by the cosputtering method. The dependence of the optical, electrical and opto-electronic properties on the imurity content has been investigated.
In the range of the aluminum content z up to about 10^-2, the photoconductive nature is maintained and the activation energy of dark conductivity changes, without a significant change in the optical band gap. This suggests the doping effect which is confirmed by the thermoelectric power measurements where the type of conduction changes from n to p with increasing z.
From similar results for boron doped films, the doping efficiency is found to be higher for boron than for aluminium.

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