Temperature Effects of Sputtering of Langmuir-Blodgett Multilayers

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are employed to characterize a wedge-shaped crater eroded by a 40 keV C(60) (+) cluster ion beam on an organic thin film of 402 nm of barium arachidate (AA) multilayers prepared by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. Sample cooling to 90 K was used to help reduce chemical damage, improve depth resolution and maintain constant erosion rate during depth profiling. The film was characterized at 90 K, 135 K, 165 K, 205 K, 265 K and 300 K. It is shown that sample cooling to 205 K or lower helps to inhibit erosion rate decay, whereas at 300 K and 265 K the erosion rate continues to drop after 250 nm of erosion, reaching about half of the initial value after removal of the entire film. Depth profiles are acquired from the SIMS images of the eroded wedge crater. The results suggest that sample cooling only slightly improves the altered layer thickness, but eliminates the decrease in erosion rate observed above 265 K.