Depth profiling of carbon and nitrogen in copper using nuclear reactions

Simultaneous implantations of ¹²C and ¹⁵N were performed into copper using the non-deviated beam line of a 2 MV Tandetron accelerator. The atomic composition of the implanted layer was measured using appropriate nuclear reactions with a 1.05 MeV deuteron beam. ¹²C(d,p₀)¹³C and ¹⁵N(d,α₀)¹³C nuclear reactions were used to depth profile simultaneously ¹²C and ¹⁵N and to determine the relative contribution of multi-ionised ¹²C and ¹⁵N ions to the carbon and nitrogen distribution. We also used the narrow resonance at 429 keV of the ¹⁵N(p,αγ)¹²C nuclear reaction to check the validity of our results. The depth distributions obtained with this resonant nuclear reaction confirmed that (d,p) and (d,α) reactions are well suited to profile both carbon and nitrogen elements with a quite good resolution. Moreover, using these reactions makes possible to profile ¹²C and ¹⁵N atoms with a single and relatively rapid measurement.