Non-destructive Depth Profiling of the Activated Ti-Zr-V Getter by Means of Excitation Energy Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy
Abstract
Non-evaporable Ti-Zr-V ternary getters (NEGs) were studied by means of excitation energy resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ERXPS). We attempted a quantitative study of the in-depth redistribution of the NEG components during activation.
The samples were prepared ex-situ by DC magnetron sputtering on a stainless-steel substrate. The ERXPS measurements were carried out at various energies.
Besides that, also standard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used. We accumulated Ti, V, Zr, C and O photoelectron peak intensities as functions of the kinetic energies given to them.
Under simplifying assumptions, Monte-Carlo calculations of the activated sample concentration profiles were performed to fit the measured spectra intensities. The results proved the in-depth redistribution of the components during the activation process.
This way we also contributed to further development of non-destructive depth profiling by electron spectroscopy techniques.