About Three-Point Depth Profiles

Three-Point Depth Profiles are similar to Depth Profiles. Instead of acquiring a small survey for each region, three-point profiles acquire only three points and extract peak-height data from those points. Because each region takes less than a second to acquire, you can acquire many more regions for a given sputter time than with regular profiles. This greatly increases the depth resolution, giving you many more cycles per depth.

Before acquiring, AugerScan requires information about the element(s) for which you want to acquire. Most of the element information is provided by the default AES element table. You can edit the existing information that AugerScan automatically provides for you, as well as add new information. Click here to see the information AugerScan needs when you define or edit existing elements.

Unlike depth profiles based on survey data, you cannot view the individual region data for three-point depth profiles.

You can expand the X-axis for all depth profiles by selecting the Expand X-Axis command from the View menu.

If you want to only sputter your sample without acquiring data, select the Sputter command from the System menu.

For instructions on acquiring a three-point depth profile, click here.

How To Choose the Analyzer Parameters for Each Element.

Three-Point Depth Profiles actually work similar to elemental mapping, in that the acquisition uses a few select energy points to determine peak height. This is done by acquiring data at the energy where the maximum peak height is expected, and two background points on either side of the peak.

To determine peak height, the background is calculated by drawing a line formed by the data et each background point. The height of that line at the point where it intersects the peak energy is the value of the background. The peak height – the background yields the relative height.

When you add an element to a three-point depth profile, the default values for the peak and background data points are recorded from the AES element table. However, note that these values will not usually be accurate enough to produce satisfactory results. It is recommended that you take a quick survey around the regions of interest to determine the best analyzer energies. Keep in mind that the Background E1 value is normally the higher energy background, E2 is lower.