Rutherford backscattering spectrometry of electrically charged targets; Elegant technique for measuring charge-state distribution of backscattered ions

Takahiro, Katsumi*; Terai, Atsushi*; Kawatsura, Kiyoshi*; Naramoto, Hiroshi; Yamamoto, Shunya; Tsuchiya, Bun*; Nagata, Shinji*; Nishiyama, Fumitaka*

It is found that the surface charging during Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) of insulating sapphire samples enables us to measure the charge-state distribution of probing ions backscattered at the sapphire surface. For Cu/Au-deposited AlO samples, two components, higher and lower-energy ones, were resolved on both Cu and Au peaks in the RBS random spectrum. For single-crystalline AlO samples, a double-peak structure was clearly observed on both Al and O surface peaks in the RBS aligned spectrum. The charge-state distribution can be obtained from the intensity of each component. The results obtained here are compared with previous data for the equilibrium charge-state distribution.