How to reveal the correct elemental concentration profiles in poled multicomponent silicate glasses from the data of secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)

Abstract It is shown that elemental concentration profiles of poled multicomponent silicate glasses measured with Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) should be corrected to account for the concentration dependence of the rate of specimens etching by energetic ions used in SIMS. A procedure of transformation of both depth and concentration coordinate, which allows revealing real concentration profiles, is proposed. This approach can be applied to any specimen, in which the concentration of at least one element does not change with the distance from the specimen surface.