A Monte Carlo study of the thickness determination of ultra-thin films

A Monte Carlo method is utilized to simulate the energy spectra for low-energy electron backscattered from different thin films deposited on different bulk substrates. A method of thickness determination for ultra-thin films is presented, which is obtained from the analysis of the basic characteristics of the energy spectra of backscattered electrons. This method is predicted to be particularly suitable for determining the thickness of ultra-thin films, and to be useful for both cases of light film on heavy substrate and heavy film on light substrate. The thickness resolution is estimated to be as high as subnanometer scale, provided the resolution of the electron energy spectrometer used to be high enough.