Noval detection scheme for the analysis of hydrogen and helium by secondary ion mass spectrometry

For the analysis of hydrogen and helium in solids and thin films by secondary ion mass spectrometry, the use of Cs + primary ions in conjunction with the detection of HCs + and HeCs + molecular ions is proposed. For both species, detection limits of the order of 10 19 atoms cm −3 are obtained at sputter removal retes of ∼1 nm s −1 . A relative depth resolution of ∼2% is demonstrated for hydrogenated amorphous Is layers on single‐crystal Si. In these specimens, the HCs + intensities scale linearly with the hydrogen concentrations c H in the range investigated ( c H < 20at.%); hence, a quantitative evaluation of the H content appears possible by means of a single standard.