A new instrument for spot profile analysis of electron diffraction (SPA-LEED) has been set up. The instrument works either with a transparent phosphor screen for visual inspection of the pattern or in its main mode with a channeltron for the measurement of the intensity. The diffraction pattern is recorded with a fixed channeltron position by scanning the beam over the channeltron aperture using two sets of electrostatic deflection plates. The scanning range covers about 30°. The intensity may vary over five orders of magnitude. The SPA-LEED system was checked with the Si (111) 7 x

The minimal primary X-ray beam size of a Quantum 2000 scanning X-ray microprobe is in the order of 10 µm. This value is obtained by measuring the distance required for a 20-80% signal increase when scanning over a material edge. But for a more precise determination of the quantitative lateral resolution of the instrument the long tail contributions of the primary X-ray beam have to be taken into account.To measure these long tail contributions, Pt apertures of different diameters usually used in electron microscopes are utilized. When the primary X-ray beam is positioned in the center of the aperture, the Pt count rate gives an estimation of the long tail X-ray contributions from outside the aperture radius. This count rate can then be normalized by a second measurement on homogeneous Pt metal.In this way, the quantitative lateral resolution function for a Quantum 2000 X-ray microprobe was determined. In particular, it was found that independent from the primary X-ray beam size, an aperture size of approximately 450 µm is necessary to reduce the Pt signal to 1% of the reference signal. A knowledge of the quantitative lateral resolution function is essential to estimate the accuracy of trace element detection on small sample features because of the trade-off between lateral spatial resolution and elemental detection limit.

The deposition of the bottom electrode plays a key role in the fabrication of ferroelectric capacitors. Processing at elevated temperatures of up to 800°C can give rise to diffusion processes and thereof formation of harmful dielectric layers.In this paper we used Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), Auger electron spectrometry (AES) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to study Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates with various thicknesses of the Ti and Pt layers. During heating up to about 450°C in vacuum the initial layer sequence remains unchanged. However, drastic changes occur when the electrodes are exposed to Ar/O2 atmosphere during heat treatment. Oxidation induced diffusion of Ti into Pt and oxidation of Ti were observed. A Pt electrode with a 100 nm thick Ti adhesion layer proved to be suitable for the "in-situ" deposition of PZT films.

A none conventional approach for depth profiling of thin film systems with enhanced depth resolution has been developed using standard Auger microprobe instruments. For the preparation of an in situ low angle cross-section, the sample is partly covered by an appropriate mask. Utilising the edge of this mask, the sample is sputtered in the Auger microprobe with ions at nearly grazing incidence. In the shadow of the mask, this produces a low angle cross section through the thin film system. Then, a conventional depth profile is measured at the point of interest where part of the thin film system is covered only by a thin top layer. As demonstrated a considerable improvement of depth resolution ∆z/z can be obtained by this method.1

According to the international standard ISO 15472 the energy scale of an XPS instrument, type Physical Electronics Quantum 2000, was calibrated. It is shown, how the procedures of the ISO 15472 were adapted to the hardware and software design of the Quantum 2000. The long time stability of the energy scale calibration of the XPS instrument was investigated. The instrumented was operated with a satisfying energy scale calibration over a period of 8 years. All the time energy differences between certain peaks could be measured with the chosen precision of the energy scale calibration.