Nondestructive initial-profile-free 3D elemental mapping in multilayer thin film structures based on EDX and a...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Spectroscopy

Background:

• Nondestructive analysis of multilayer thin films is crucial for material characterization.
• Existing methods often require sample destruction or make assumptions about initial profiles.
• Accurate elemental distribution mapping is essential for understanding material properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel data analysis method for nondestructive depth profiling of multilayer thin films.
• To enable three-dimensional elemental mapping from energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) data without initial profile assumptions.
• To validate the accuracy and utility of the proposed method through experimental analysis.

Main Methods:

• Developed a data analysis method based on a quadratic programming problem.
• Applied the method to perform depth profiling for all pixels in EDX 2D mapping data.
• Validated results by comparing with cross-sectional observations of multilayer samples.

Main Results:

• Successfully performed nondestructive depth profiling on two multilayer thin-film samples with different structures.
• Demonstrated accurate three-dimensional elemental mapping of the samples.
• Achieved wide-area (mm scale) elemental distribution analysis, surpassing limitations of other methods.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method provides accurate, nondestructive depth profiling and 3D elemental mapping of multilayer thin films.
• This technique overcomes the limitations of existing analytical methods for large-area, non-destructive analysis.
• The paper fully describes the determination of critical hyperparameters for reliable results.