Contribution to the Quantitative Analysis of Ternary Alloys of Group III-Nitrides by Auger Spectroscopy

For correct quantitative interpretation of Auger spectra of group III-nitrides and their alloys it is necessary to have the relative sensitivity factors of elements and the sputtering yields measured for the material under analysis. These data are not available in the literature for those materials. In this work, the quantities have been determined experimentally that are needed for reliable and precise quantitative interpretation of Auger spectra of such materials, thus of AlN, GaN and their ternary alloys Al_xGa₁-_xN. Measurements of reference AlN and GaN samples allowed to find the elemental sensitivity factors for these nitrides, and measurements on reference samples of ternary alloys Al_xGa₁-_xN allowed to find the ratio of the component sputtering yields, Y_Ga/Y_Al. It has been confirmed that if the relative sensitivity factors are obtained from measurements of reference samples of group III-nitrides, thus of compounds, and if in the alloys of such compounds no further change of the shapes of Auger peaks occurs, the both the areas below the Auger peaks in direct spectra and the Auger peak-to-peak heights in differentiated spectra can be used for quantitative analysis.