Recently a 'divide and conquer' approach was developed to model by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations dynamic secondary ion mass spectrometry experiments.  Although rms roughness can be directly calculated from the simulations, calculating depth profiles is beyond the current capability of the MD simulations.  We have developed the steady-state statistical sputtering model for connecting information from the MD simulations to depth profiles.  The model is utilized to interpret molecular dynamics simulations of depth profiling of Ag solids under different cluster beam conditions.  The rms roughness of each system correlates with the total displacement yield.  The results indicate that the best depth profiles occur when the displacement yield is low and the sputtering yield is high.  Moreover, it is determined that the expected value of the delta layer position as calculated from a depth profile rather than the peak position is the best indicator of the actual delta layer position.

Molecular dynamics simulations and an analytic model for predicting depth profiles in dynamic SIMS

244th National Meeting (2012)

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