Energy Distribution of Positive Secondary Ions from Pure Elements and Amorphous Alloys

As it is well-known,one of the most serious problem of the quantitation of SIMS is that the secondary ion yield of the elements varies strongly with matrix and concentration. This problem has been studied by numerous authors; usually, however,they did not analyze the influence of the energy distribution of the secondary ions on this effect. The works dealing with the influence of the matrix on the energy spectra in detail also used polycrystal-line, multiphase alloys. Therefore, the yields were mean values of the differently emitting surface sites [1,2]. To eliminate this imperfection of multicomponent targets, reliably homogeneous and isotrope materials, amorphous alloys ( metallic glasses ) were used.