Effect of sputtering yield changes on the depth resolution in cluster beam depth-profiling of polymers

The authors present the results of the simulation, by means of a recently introduced transport and reaction model, of the sputter depth profiling of delta layers in a polymer system that undergoes mild modification during the measurement, such as in the case of XPSprofiling with large cluster ion beams. They find that, even in the absence of roughening and at constant beam-induced mixing effects, the variations of sputtering yield caused by sample damage produce non-negligible changes in depth resolution.