Depth profiling of carbon and nitrogen in copper using nuclear reactions

Simultaneous implantations of C and N were performed into copper using the non-deviated beam line of a 2 MV Tandetron accelerator. The atomic composition of the implanted layer was measured using appropriate nuclear reactions with a 1.05 MeV deuteron beam. C(d, p)C and N(d, α)C nuclear reactions were used to depth profile simultaneously C and N and to determine the relative contribution of multi-ionised C and N ions to the carbon and nitrogen distribution. We also used the narrow resonance at 429 keV of the N(p, αγ)C nuclear reaction to check the validity of our results. The depth distributions obtained with this resonant nuclear reaction confirmed that (d, p) and (d, α) reactions are well suited to profile both carbon and nitrogen elements with a quite good resolution. Moreover, using these reactions makes possible to profile C and N atoms with a single and relatively rapid measurement. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved