Conversion Electron Mössbauer Scattering. A Technique for Structural Microanalysis of Thin Films and Subsurface Regions in Materials

Within the past few years, conversion electron Mössbauer spectroscopy, CEMS, has been used increasingly for structural analysis of thin films and subsurface regions in solids. Because of its attractive probing depth, ranging from first atomic layers on the surface to about lμm below the surface, and because of its high sensitivity, which in most favorable cases enables studies of films as thin as 1 to 100ng/cm2, i.e., 1013-10l5at/cm2, CEMS has established itself as a sensitive depth-selective method for materials characterization in different areas of high-technology and related basic research. Various problems currently investigated with the help of CEMS include surface physics and chemistry, studies of thin films and inter- faces, magnetism, metallurgy, catalysis, materials fatigue, corrosion, ion implantation, radiation damage, and plasma-wall interaction. Experimental aspects of CEMS and its applications were discussed in several earlier reviews [1–7] and a complete list of references until November 1982 can be found in the “Conversion Electron Mössbauer Spectroscopy Handbook” [8].