Analysis of the interface and its position in [C.sub.60.sup.n+] secondary ion mass spectrometry depth profiling

[C.sub.60.sup.n+] ions have been shown to be extremely successful for SIMS depth profiling of a wide range of organic materials, causing significantly less degradation of the molecular information than more traditional primary ions. This work focuses on examining the definition of the interface in a [C.sub.60.sup.n+] SIMS depth profile for an organic overlayer on a wafer substrate. First it investigates the optimum method to define the organic/ inorganic interface position. Variations of up to 8 nm in the interface position can arise from different definitions of the interface position in the samples investigated here. Second, it looks into the reasons behind large interfacial widths, i.e., poor depth resolution, seen in [C.sub.60.sup.n+] depth profiling. This work confirms that, for Irganox 1010 deposited on a wafer, the depth resolution at the Irganox 1010/substrate interface is directly correlated to the roughening of material.