Irradiation-induced damage in porous low-k materials during low-energy heavy-ion elastic recoil detection analysis

Abstract With the implementation of time-of-flight elastic recoil detection (ToF-ERD) for the analysis of thin films with high depth resolution using a standard ‘low-energy’ accelerator, routine application of ERD in semiconductor technology becomes possible. In case of irradiation-sensitive materials, like organosilicate low- k films, the energetic incident beam damages the sample during the measurement, resulting in loss of the lighter elements and, as a consequence, altering the sample composition. The ion beam induced damage is investigated for 19 F, 35 Cl, 63 Cu, 79 Br and 127 I beams at energies of 6–16 MeV and typical fluences for ERD analysis. By means of Fourier transform infrared …